RealGM Basketball

Charlotte Bobcats Wiretap

Bobcats news gathered from around the net.

Bobcats Links

News Archive

NBA News

Spurs on Receiving End of Bomb Scare

Jan 31, 2002 4:15 PM EST

It was about the time David Robinson showed up at the Alamodome with a slight limp that the Spurs knew good help might be hard to find Tuesday night.

As it turned out, the Spurs would have simply settled for a pair of good hands.

After committing 15 turnovers in the first three quarters, then going scoreless for the first 5:57 of the final quarter, the Spurs fell 78-73 to Charlotte on Tuesday night at the Alamodome.

About 10 minutes after the game ended, police officers, ushers and security guards evacuated the Alamodome because of a bomb threat.

Though most of the crowd of 16,624 had already begun filing out, some of the players were still in their uniforms when they were told about the threat. After a sweep, the building was declared safe about 11:20 p.m.

Via

San Antonio Spurs, Charlotte Bobcats

Read the Full Story Discuss Buy Tickets

Lynch increasing his production

Jan 31, 2002 2:26 PM EST

For all the things that clicked for the Hornets in Tuesday's victory at San Antonio -- and there were quite a few -- none got coach Paul Silas as excited as the continued emergence of George Lynch.

Lynch was one of the keys to yet another major effort from the Charlotte bench, helping solidify the defense that limited the Spurs to a season low in points, field goals made and assists. It was another sign he is quickly getting back on his game after foot surgery kept him out of the season's first 36 games.

"George went into the game talking," Silas said in reference to the help-a-teammate chatter that keeps the defenders alert and effective. "He and Stacey Augmon really ignited that, along with David Wesley, and then all the guys started talking."

Lynch, a 6-foot-8 forward in his ninth NBA season, came to Charlotte in October in a trade with Philadelphia. He is known for his defense and knack for doing the little things that help a team win, much as P.J. Brown does. He has played in seven games since coming off the injured list, and his 24-minute stint at San Antonio was his longest of the season.

He scored two points on 1-of-5 shooting but had nine rebounds, two steals and a blocked shot.

Overall the Charlotte bench hammered the Spurs reserves, dominating them 34-10 in points and 23-9 in rebounds.

Other contributions from the bench: Bryce Drew, 15 points, five rebounds; Jamaal Magloire, nine points, four rebounds, two blocks; Augmon, eight points, five rebounds and a steal. The statistics for their extended stays on the court, averaging 20.5 minutes apiece, didn't reflect the defense, but it was there.

"That was the reason we won," Silas said. "We played very aggressive, especially in the second half."

The Spurs got 29 points and 21 rebounds from former Wake Forest star Tim Duncan, though only nine points in the second half. They shot 34.2 percent overall and scored 73, 25.2 below average. The Spurs' three-point shooting, fifth best in the league at 38.2 percent, dipped to 19.0 percent (4-of-21).

Notes

• The bomb threat at the Alamodome after the game was the second the Hornets have experienced this season. They had another at Philips Arena in Atlanta.

San Antonio police cleared the arena, leaving some Spurs players in the parking lot wearing their uniforms. An hour's search turned up nothing.

• The Hornets flew to Houston late Tuesday, then practiced Wednesday at the Compaq Center, where they'll face the Rockets on Friday night.

Baron Davis, slowed by a stomach virus in the Spurs game, participated in the workout.

"He's better but still not all the way back," Silas said.

• Magloire will do a live Internet chat on hornets.com at 4 p.m. today.

Via

Charlotte Bobcats

Read the Full Story Discuss Buy Tickets

Hornets rule 2nd half, top Spurs

Jan 30, 2002 10:32 AM EST

The only thing that threw a scare into the Hornets Tuesday was a postgame bomb scare. The San Antonio Spurs? Not on this night.

Turning a most unusual set of circumstances to their advantage, the Hornets overcame an early assault by Tim Duncan and the Spurs, then controlled the second half on the way to a 78-73 victory at the Alamodome.

Charlotte (21-23) was fighting the odds in this one, coming off a back-to-back set of weekend defeats and playing one of the league's Western Conference powers in a road game. The outlook didn't change that much even though the Spurs (29-14) announced just before the game that one of their twin towers, 7-1 David Robinson, would not be playing because of a right knee bruise.

The scenario got worse. Starting point guard Baron Davis, the Hornets' leading scorer with a 19.3 average, was fighting a stomach virus. And once the game began, the Spurs started getting points in bunches from 7-0 Tim Duncan and sprinted away early to a 12-point lead.

With Davis and fellow backcourt starter David Wesley misfiring repeatedly as they began what would be a night of misadventure -- they finished with a combined 6-for-29 and 14 points -- it appeared that Charlotte was headed for a third consecutive loss.

That was before the Hornets' defense rose up with an aggressive second-half performance, before Bryce Drew scored 15 to power a dominating bench effort and long before someone phoned in a bomb threat that prompted San Antonio police to start rushing everyone from the arena just minutes after the game's conclusion.

The bench production was huge. In addition to Drew, Jamaal Magloire scored nine and Stacey Augmon eight. George Lynch grabbed nine rebounds, one off Elden Campbell's team-high of 10. Overall, Charlotte's bench topped San Antonio's reserves in scoring (34-10) and rebounding (23-9).

Duncan closed with 29 points, only nine in the final two quarters, and 21 rebounds.

"It seems like every time we get our backs to the wall, we come up with a big win," forward P.J. Brown said. "We really needed this game and we got it. But we shouldn't rely on things like this to get us out of trouble."

Drew started providing some of his points late in the first quarter as the Hornets began their comeback from the 12-point deficit. Just after entering the game with about four minutes to play in the period he hit a baseline jumper, then followed with a three-pointer.

That helped Charlotte close in by the end of the quarter, when San Antonio's lead was down to five. And the momentum carried over into the second, producing an overall 19-6 run that put the Hornets into the lead shortly before halftime.

They led 65-63 at the break. At that point Duncan was riddling their defense, however, hitting 8-of-9 shots and scoring 20 with nine rebounds. They knew they couldn't afford to let that continue.

"They missed David (Robinson)," Brown said. "Duncan had to shoulder more of the load with him out. Our big key was the second half. Duncan had 20 in the first so we went to work even harder on him defensively (doubling him with two big men every time he touched the ball)."

The Hornets opened a seven-point lead in the third quarter when San Antonio went six minutes without a point. They had a scoring drought of their own that allowed the Spurs to slip back within two, then pushed out to a nine-point lead.

San Antonio scrambled in the final minutes to pull it out. When Duncan hit one of two free throws with 45.5 seconds left Charlotte's lead was a single point, 74-73.

But, with the Spurs forced to foul, the Hornets responded at the line to close it out.

Brown and Augmon hit two free throws apiece in the final seconds to seal it.

Via

Charlotte Bobcats, San Antonio Spurs

Read the Full Story Discuss Buy Tickets

Bobcats Jan 2002 Archive