Charlotte Bobcats take down the Pistons 97-87 (Part 2)
The Charlotte Bobcats had just about done everything right in the first stanza, but their poor conversion rate allowed the Detroit Pistons to remain within touching distance throughout. Their poor shooting again proved to be their undoing at
the start of the second half as Detroit surged ahead with a 9-2 run.
With less than seven minutes remaining in the third quarter, Tayshaun Prince made a slicing jam to put the Pistons up by 56-48. In the remaining minutes though, Stephen Jackson spearheaded a venomous 20-9 assault as the Bobcats rallied back.
The vociferous spurt not only allowed the Bobcats to claw their way back, but they also took the lead with a thunderous dunk from Kwame Brown in the dying seconds of the quarter. D.J. Augustin then followed up with two shots from the charity
stripe as Charlotte nudged ahead 68-65 at the end of the period.
"That's been our Achilles heel all season - giving up those big runs in the second half," Pistons reserve forward Austin Daye said after the match. "We still thought we had control of the game, but Stephen Jackson got hot."
After a brilliant nine-point performance in the third quarter by Jackson, the ace guard didn’t waste much time to turn the heat on in the final quarter. He started with a three-point ripper from beyond the arc to set the tone early. Gerald Henderson
followed suit with a three-point play and the Bobcats were off and running to a 13-point unchallenged run which Jackson eventually capped with another three.
Spurred on by the Jackson show upfront, the Bobcats defence also started to make life difficult for their offensive counterparts. Brown was the man behind the resurgence. The intimidating centre effectively closed down the lanes for an already
struggling Detroit offence. With no room to penetrate down the centre of the court, the Pistons were forced on the perimeters. Shooting from angles has never been Detroit’s strength and it was exposed brutally by the Bobcats on the night.
Consequently, the shots slowly started to dry up for the lagging Pistons, which added to the frustration of an agitated crowd who badly wanted to see Jackson go down. In the first seven minutes of the fourth quarter, Detroit only managed nine
points - five of which came from the free-throw line. Charlotte on the other hand raced away.
"That was about defence," Jackson said. "We got stops and some easy baskets. They missed a couple shots and we took advantage of them."
Heading into the last five minutes of play the Bobcats led by as many as 16 points. It was at that point that the home team finally managed to break the dreaded cold shooting spell, as they mustered up a 9-0 spurt to pull back at 83-90. Jackson
though was again standing in their way. He completed the Piston fight back with a classy drive down the lane and slipped in a lay-up.
Tayshaun Prince responded immediately with a put back dunk shot for the Pistons. However, they again went cold after that, missing their next five shooting attempts and also gave away a turnover. Their blunders down the stretch ensured that the
visitors were never threatened, as D.J. Augustin hammered five straight points from the other end to put the outcome of the match beyond doubt.
The match finally ended at 97-87 as the Bobcats ended a six-match away stretch with a 4-2 outcome. The Bobcats had an excellent all-round game. They beat the short-handed Pistons in every department of the game, out-rebounding them and beating
them both in fast break points and points in the paint. To complement that they recovered from a 39.2 percent shooting in the first half to finally finish with a 50 percent conversion rate.
Next up, the Bobcats meet the red-hot Miami Heat at home. Although the odds are certainly pitched against Charlotte, but if they show the kind of finesse they have displayed through most of the road trip, they might just be able to topple the
start studded cast of the Heat.
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