Nets-Bobcats Preview: The Coldest Team in the NBA vs. the Worst Team
By Jonah Mars
Tonight, the Nets will be back home to battle the NBA’s worst team, the Charlotte Bobcats. The Nets are 3-0 against the Bobcats this year, including 2 wins recently this month. The first of those wins was D-Will’s 57 point game on March 4th, a 104-101 victory in Charlotte. The Nets only have 15 wins on the season, so the Bobcats have accounted for 1/5 of their victories. That’s pretty sad. The Bobcats have been “relatively hot” recently, winning 3 of their last 10. That is very good for them. Last night they lost by 20 to Milwaukee, despite 29 points from Gerald Henderson. The Nets ran their losing streak to 5 games last night in a 9-point loss in Atlanta. They are the coldest team in the NBA right now. The Nets are the third worst home team in the NBA, with a 5-18 record at The Rock, and the Bobcats are the worst road team with a 3-21 record away from Charlotte. The two teams are a combined 8-39. That’s awful. May the least terrible team win tonight.
Key matchups:
Deron Williams vs. D.J. Augustin. Advantage: Williams.
All you need to look at here is Deron’s 57 point game against Charlotte earlier this year. Nobody on the Bobcats’ roster can even attempt to defend him. If Deron wants to, he will score 40 again tonight. He very well may want to.
Marshon Brooks vs. Gerald Henderson. Advantage: Henderson.
At the beginning of the year before the Nets started playing terribly, this would be a very close matchup and I may even give Marshon the advantage. But Marshon has not been playing well recently and Henderson has. The only way Marshon is going to get out of his slump is by playing, so I think Avery should give him more playing time, even if it hurts the team. At this point, wins and losses do not really matter. Player development matters, and Marshon needs to play.
Gerald Wallace vs. Corey Maggette. Advantage: Wallace.
Gerald Wallace will be facing his former team in this game, and may want to play well because of it. Corey Maggette always seems to find ways to draw fouls, but in a kind of Carmelo-esque way that doesn’t actually help the team. And Crash’s defense is much better than Maggette’s. Advantage Nets.
Kris Humphries vs. Tyrus Thomas. Advantage: Humphries
This may be another tough matchup for The Hump, because Thomas is another athletic power forward. However, he is no Josh Smith, and The Hump should be able to keep up with him. Because of how many missed shots I expect to see in this game, Humphries should have at least 15 rebounds. I predict Thomas will get into early foul trouble.
Shelden Williams vs. Bismack Biyombo. Advantage: Williams
Biyombo is a rookie who has played better recently, but I think Shelden will be a handful for him tonight. Shelden is smarter and fatter than him and he will use these things to his advantage in boxing out Bismack. We might see Shelden with 10 rebounds tonight.
My bold prediction in this game is that both teams will shoot under 40% tonight. Expect big rebounding games from the Nets bigs because of all of the misses. Now for my score prediction. The Nets will win 55-49 behind 40 points from Deron Williams (I am only half-kidding).