Mixed Reaction

Only got to watch the second half tonight, but while a home loss to the Bobcats is always distressing, I did think there were two bright spots tonight:

1) Pretty nice minutes for Noah, at least in the second half, and who knows, if not for some rrrrrrrreally ticky tack fouls, he might've even gotten more. Getting to the line eight times in only 24 minutes is pretty frickin' good as well. Now if he can just shoot better than 37.5 percent from there, we'll be rocking.

2) That one stretch in the third when Thabo was simply abusing Matt Carroll? That was awesome. Since he was only 6 of 16, he must've played pretty awful for most of the rest of the night, but that stretch was just a lot of fun, particularly when Noce tried to get post position alongside Thabo and Kirk furiously waved him away, as if to say, "Are you fucking kidding me? This kid is killing it--get the hell out of here!"

The negatives were the same as they always are: Do I really need to point out that, unless it's either a quintriple overtime game or he's just playing four minutes, there should never be a "4" in the first column of Ben Wallace's minutes. And, of course, that meant no Tyrus in the 2nd half, until the game was pretty much already decided. Gaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh! Although at this point, it's almost moronic to complain about it: With this coaching staff, it's like bitching about the sun rising in the east each morning.

Anyway, if you haven't seen it yet, read Matt's first half grades. They're a hoot.