Shhh, Don’t Tell Charlotte Its in the Playoff Race

Living in Charlotte, it’s recently come to my attention that the Bobcats have an outside chance of sneaking into the eighth playoff spot in the East. Having not followed the team closely since moving here in ’07, it was my understanding that they generally were not good at basketball. But in the NBA, which is kind enough to allow sub-.500 teams into its postseason, anything is possible.↵↵So, going into last night, the Bobcats were 1.5 games back of the Bulls for that coveted eight-spot. Charlotte was playing in Washington, where the Wizards are still cruelly being forced to play games. As you’d expect, the team with something left to play for had a 20-point lead and was cruising to an essential victory. ↵

↵↵And then it all came crumbling down. The Bobcats lost, fell to 2.5 games back of Chicago and then looked for something to blame. The media? Sure, why not:↵

↵↵⇥“You (media) guys keep reminding us about the playoffs, and that could have messed with our heads,” forward Gerald Wallace (21 points) said. “We’ve never been through this before.” ↵↵Well, a couple of you have actually been through this. You know, the guys who came over from Phoenix. One of whom is Boris Diaw, who demonstrated the proper quote to rattle off after this type of loss: “But it’s definitely our fault -- we lost this game.”↵