Talkin' Charlotte Bobcats and Sixers with Rufus on Fire

With the Sixers set to play the Bobcats tonight in Philly, I emailed Ben Swanson from the puntastic Rufus on Fire (say it out loud, you'll get it) for a blurb about the Bobcats because, honestly, I've seen exactly zero minutes of Charlotte this season save for a few clips of Kemba Walker and Bismack Biyombo doing what they presumably do. From what I gather, they're significantly worse than a nosebleed but not quite as bad as having your eyebrows sawed off with a machete. Lucky for me, Ben answered with a nice thing. That thing is below. Play with it. Learn from it.

The Bobcats are the suckiest right now.

Don't get me wrong, I don't mean they're not really freaking terrible at other times, but usually they're less so. Charlotte's starting lineup has been demolished by injuries as of late, with D.J. Augustin sustaining some kind of crack in his big toe, Gerald Henderson's lower back problems after a Jared Jeffries hard foul, and Corey Maggette's strained hamstring. Enter Kemba Walker, Matt Carroll, Derrick Brown, Tyrus Thomas and DeSagana Diop.

I really don't know what else to say. There is no way in hell the Bobcats win. Not only are those starters injured, but so is the Bobcats most efficient scorer, D.J. White. Byron Mullens will play, but has a bruised right hand. And Reggie Williams is still out while he recovers from knee surgery.

The Bobcats are simply awful on both sides of the court. They settle for jump shots, as shown by their No. 1 ranking in field goal attempts between 16 and 23 feet out. Ball movement is inconsistent and inefficient. The Bobcats only scoring threat is Kemba Walker, who has been nearly exclusively taking the ball on isolation plays. But how much can you blame him with the players that surround him, my god.

On defense, they have a major hole in the paint. Perhaps moving Mullens back to the bench alleviates that a little, but Gana Diop is slow-footed and still slightly out of shape. He's not going to fend off opponents from getting into the paint at all. And so the Bobcats become forced to overcompensate for opponent's dominance on the boards and getting to the rack, which opens up the perimeter game.

In conclusion, the Bobcats were beat by the Wizards by 17. And that Bobcats roster was better than the one that will play the 76ers tonight.

That's the kind of optimism I like to see from a Bobcats blogger! I miss the good old days. Catch my disease over at Rufus on Fire (say it again) to see what I said about the Sixers. See ya'll tonight for thread. Francisco Elson will be guest-starring. How many points do you estimate the Sixers will win by and, more importantly, how many minutes will Cisco play?