Recap: Charlotte Bobcats 121, Golden State Warriors 110- A modest proposal to do away with the 3rd.

Who says that there have to be 4 quarters in an NBA game?  Hockey does just fine with 3 periods.  Sure, not having grown up in an arctic wilderness, hockey rightfully has no appeal to me at all.  Do not trust people from temperate and subtropical climates who profess to love hockey.  There's something deeply wrong with it.  If you cannot regularly expect water to freeze outside when provided with no stimulus other than the fact that it's too #@% cold out there, you should not have a hockey team in your city either. Hockey?  No thanks.

But there is that appeal of three periods.  At least this season, I vote that we eliminating the 3rd quarter.  We'd hardly miss it.  We'd be a more competitive team. "Per 36" stats would make a whole lot more sense. We wouldn't have to fume about Monta being sent out there for 45 minutes in order to run himself down in yet another futile effort. And we'd all get home a bit earlier. 

Last night, it wouldn't have changed the outcome.  Toss out any single quarter and the Warriors still get beat, but at least give the idea a bit of thought.

Is there really that much to say about this one?  Larry Brown appeared to be taunting us, running Jax out there for 45 minutes, even after the contest was long decided.

Jackson himself didn't look fazed in the slightest by the chorus of boos.  A few fans came down to give him handshakes and hugs before the contest.  Two kids about four rows back are probably still tugging at opposite ends of the head band he tossed to them after the game.  He was all smiles, showing the personality that made him charm most of the Warrior faithful for most of the time he was here. 

No, I don't want him back.  Long term, he'll decline as his contract grows, and if the upside is a mediocre team hovering around .500 who may sneak into the final playoff spot but show no hope in adding talent to get better either through the draft, free agency or trade, that's not something to envy.  But with a choice of watching Anthony Tolliver or Cartier Martin or watching Stephen Jackson play, it's not a contest *and I was never a fan of Jack's game*.

Monta shot often, but didn't connect often enough.  Curry quietly had a very nice game, but "quiet" extends to far, far too much of the contest.  Out-rebounded, out-defended, it's no wonder that most of the fans were just plain out of the building before half of the 4th quarter was over.  You'd think that the Warriors were putting up BART schedules on the jumbotrons or something, and 35% of the fans wanted to make sure they didn't accidentally miss that next direct train to Millbrae and wind up having to stand on the platform for 8 or 9 minutes. 

If only you could still buy beer once the exodus was on. The lines would be mercifully short.

Up close and in person, it's strange to think that Gerald Wallace was long the subject of trade rumors that seemed almost realistic, like there was an actual possibility he could have been a Warrior for a reasonable price.  Wallace has transformed into the modern super-Rodman. He's a magnet for rebounds and a blanket defender who can neutralize 2s, 3s and 4s, but he's much more of a threat on the offensive end with a not spectacular, but still rather reasonable shooting touch and an explosion towards the hoop that puts him at the line for easy points.  Imagine if Maggette was 50% better on the glass and 100% better blanketing his man.  Just imagine...

Ray Felton also seemed like a reasonable target. Not as dominant as Wallace. Maybe not even an upgrade over Curry (or more to the point, what Curry could be), but for a guy who it looked like Charlotte might just let walk, he's transformed himself into a respectable point guard.  A source of envy?  Hardly, until you realize that we're handing 30-40 minutes a night to guys who would otherwise be competing for spots on the Austin Toros. Yes, longing for a ridiculously average player.  That's what it's come to.

What is to blame for this lousy product?

Possibility #1:  The team is made up of a bunch of quitters.  If they only played hard we'd be right back in it!

Possibility #2:  The team is made up of a bunch of marginal talents, with question marks surrounding their top talents (is he able to play PG? Will he ever develop an offensive move to go with the rebounding?  Are we there yet?) and a supporting cast of D-leaguers who, due to a combination of poor planning and devastatingly bad injury luck, have been pressed into actual service. 

Possibility #3:  There is still a curse.  Our sacrifices to the overlords have not been received kindly and we are being punished for our failure to appease the supernatural.

I'm going with 2 *AND* 3.  It doesn't look like the players have quit.  It hardly seems like a valiant effort would really do that much to change things. Well, at least not until we get the contest down to three periods.  Then maybe we can expect miracles?

The Warriors are about as uninteresting as a team can be at this point.  Remember how bad it was during the Dave Cowens/Garry St. Jean/Brian Winters stretch?  I see no appreciable difference.  Neither did any of the other 17,849 folk in the seats, a minor miracle of attendance for a meaningless contest on a wet and overcast Friday night.

Warrior Wonder?:  Chris Hunter for a staggering two assists in as many minutes for and a +5 plus-minus for the game!  If only Nellie had him in from the beginning, we'd have won that one by ~120!