Are The Bobcats Playoff Sleepers?

It’s worth asking this question again after the Bobcats beat the Magic on the road last night. Of all the lower playoff teams in the East, is Charlotte the most dangerous?

Think about it. The Bobcats are a respectable 5-8 against the top four teams in the East (Boston, Orlando, Cleveland and Atlanta), but that record is misleading because four of those games came very early in the season before they traded for Stephen Jackson. Since the trade, the Bobcats are 4-5 against those teams, and two of those losses to Orlando were close games that could have gone either way. They have three wins against the Cavaliers and now also have one win against the Magic.

SB Nation’s Bobcats blog Rufus on Fire understands the Bobcats are dangerous if they’re firing on all cylinders.

When they don’t turn the defense up to 11 and settle for less than perfect jump shots, they’re not a playoff-caliber team. But when the Cats do all those things, they’re capable of beating the best teams in the league. They can take a best-of-seven series against anyone.

It shouldn’t be that hard to turn that defense up to 11 in the playoffs when you have two excellent perimeter defenders (Gerald Wallace and Stephen Jackson) and three solid defensive centers in Nazr Mohammad, Tyson Chandler (if healthy) and the Theo Ratliff. Throw in newcomer Tyrus Thomas, a whirling demon ready to be unleashed, and it’s not going to be very easy to score on these guys, to say the least.

At the same time, regular-season scheduling weirdness needs to be considered. The Magic were playing their third game in four nights and had to travel from Washington, where they played the night before. As SB Nation’s Orlando Pinstriped Post noted, they were tired. Two of Charlotte’s wins over Cleveland also came when Cleveland was on a second night of a back-to-back set. This isn’t an excuse, mind you, but it’s worth noting because there are no back-to-back games in the playoffs.

I guess the only way to find out is to wait a month and see what happens, assuming Charlotte does make it. I hope they are legit, because otherwise the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs could be a bit boring.