Bobcats must stop penetration

Published Oct. 16, 2009 at 6:26 a.m.
Continuity and effort.

Those things are difficult to measure, but impossible to replace. They're what the Charlotte Bobcats have lacked at times this preseason in addressing a major concern:

Containing opponents' dribble-penetration.

When Bobcats coach Larry Brown said he didn't like his team's energy in a 17-point loss to the Atlanta Hawks on Monday, that's some of what he meant. Hawks forward Josh Smith and rookie point guard Jeff Teague each made 10 trips to the foul line. That's a reflection of how the Bobcats struggled to block Smith's and Teague's paths to the rim.

The guy best equipped to impact that - newly acquired center Tyson Chandler - hasn't played in a preseason game while recovering from ankle surgery. Chandler didn't like what he saw from the bench.

"I felt like the Atlanta game, more than anything, was just (lacking) effort out there," Chandler surmised.

"Coaches will never be upset and your teammates will never be upset if you're out there playing hard and you make a mental mistake. That happens in a game. But people are going to get upset if you're not giving the right effort out there."

Brown said he was disappointed with how the available big men - Gana Diop, Alexis Ajinca and Nazr Mohammed - played in Atlanta. But that doesn't let the guards off the hook. The little guys have to move their feet quickly enough to block a dribbler's path. When that fails, the big guys have to clean up the mess.

Brown said that's the hardest thing to do in the modern NBA game because the rules restrict almost all hand-checking of players dribbling the ball. As Brown joked Monday, "with certain players, you can't even be in the same building" without risking a foul.

Difficult as this is, it's an area where the Bobcats must improve. The quickest fix is a return to health by Chandler and power forward Boris Diaw (ankle sprain).

Chandler and Diaw practice with the team, but probably won't be cleared to play before next week. Chandler figures that's been a hindrance to continuity.

"It doesn't help when I play starter minutes out here in practice and then I'm not playing in the game," Chandler said. "Once we're all practicing together and playing in the game together, everything will start falling" into place.

Brown said he's more concerned with getting Chandler and Diaw healthy than rushing them into the mix. Still, it's not easy playing defense minus the starting center and power forward.

"Boris is a very underrated defender because he defends a lot of different positions," Brown said. "So you can switch out late (in the shot clock) because you have a big guy (with the quickness) to stay in front of people. Tyson is athletic and long and a terrific shot blocker.

"If teams don't fear any shot blocking behind (your guards), you've got issues," Brown concluded. "When they get beat on the perimeter, it's not as much of a penalty for a team with great shot blocking."

Briefly

Guard Flip Murray is out at least for the rest of the preseason games with what the team described as "early signs of a stress reaction" in his left shin. Murray suffered a stress fracture while playing college ball at Shaw and had a steel rod placed in his tibia. The Bobcats signed Murray just before training camp to add experience and depth at both guard spots.

Mohammed (back spasms) and point guard Raymond Felton (sore throat) missed practice Wednesday.

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