04/19/2010 - 12:05
Ty, Cats Battle, Lose Game One
by Devon Jeffreys

After falling behind by as many as 22 points early in the second half, Tyson Chandler helped the Charlotte Bobcats storm back to threaten the lead.

But TC and his teammates couldn't dig out of the hole that they'd dug early, and the Bobcats dropped Game 1 of their first round series with the Orlando Magic 98-89 in Orlando on Sunday.

However, No. 6 was pleased with the fight the Bobcats showed even after Orlando took a 59-43 lead at the half on the strength of 60 percent shooting from the field.

"We're never going to quit. We're not the type of team that's going to quit," Tyson said. "If you've been in the playoffs, you know the home team is going to come out and throw a punch. The thing you have to do is withstand that and make adjustments. They threw a tough punch and in the second half we made it a game."

Ty said the biggest adjustments came in defending the Orlando pick and roll, which Magic center Dwight Howard and point guard Jameer Nelson exposed to get Nelson 24 first half points.

"We weren't getting out enough and trying to slow Jameer down," Tyson said. "He was able to get whatever he wanted. He had the layup and he had Dwight as an option. He was kicking it out and they were hitting threes.

"Early in the game they were just coming off, lining the laces up and getting wide-open three-point shots. Once we made adjustments, we were able to get hands up and force them into some tougher shots."

With a 16-point halftime deficit staring them in the face, Charlotte took the intermission opportunity to refocus on imposing their method of basketball on the game.

"When we came in at halftime, we knew they had given us a nice shot," Tyson said. "You know they're not going to shoot the ball like that for another half. So the thing that we had to do was turn the game into our pace and make the game our style instead of up and down."

The Bobcats played a more physical second half, limiting Orlando to just 17 third quarter points as they chipped away at the lead. Sensing the need for a defensive presence with the athleticism to get out on the pick and roll, Bobcats coach Larry Brown played TC for almost as much time in the third as he had all of the first half.

"We're a grimy team," Tyson said. "We have to grind it out, play defense and force them into tough shots. On offense, swing the ball, get a lot of movement going. Where we get in trouble is when the ball sticks on one side, offensively. Defensively, it's when we're not talking and rotating."

In his 5:38 on the floor to end the third, No. 6 scored two-points off an offensive rebound of a miss by Gerald Wallace. He finished the quarter with two points, two rebounds, one on each end, an assist, a steal and a block.

On the defensive end, Ty limited Orlando center tandem of Howard and Marcin Gortat to a combined three points in the third. Forced to settle for outside shots, Orlando shot just 23.8 percent from the field in the third. Charlotte, meanwhile, shot 60 percent and took just one three-pointer in the third.

"When you're on the road in a hostile environment, you have to attack the rim," Tyson said. "If we try to shoot threes and play their game, we'll never win. We have to take it to them, take it to their bigs, try to finish at the basket, slow the game down and keep it on offense."

In addition to their 6-9 from inside the arc, Charlotte also sank 11 of 15 free throws in the third quarter to cut back into the game.

"We definitely came out and made a point of it to attack the basket," TC said. "That definitely helped us out because we were able to get to the free throw line, able to slow it down, able to then talk to each other about things we were seeing out there defensively and make adjustments."

Charlotte continued to inflict their style on Orlando to begin the fourth and cut the lead all the way down to four with 3:51 to go in the game. A floater from Vince Carter made it a six-point game and Wallace cut it back to five with a 1-2 trip to the line. But Howard added an exclamation point with a putback dunk with two minutes to go to make it a seven-point game. Charlotte would never get back within four and ran out of time.

"We made a run. Unfortunately, we didn't finish it, but we played our game," Tyson said. "We took a couple of their threes away, but they still made some tough shots and that's why they were able to win."

No. 6 finished with two points, three rebounds, two assists, two steals and a block.

DEFENDING DWIGHT
The Bobcats went into the game with a well-defined game plan: limit Dwight Howard and take their chances with Orlando's shooters.

The plan worked, as Howard was held to five points on four shots and 1-6 from the free throw line. But the shooters did the damage, knocking down better than 43 percent of their shots from three-point range (13-30).

But Tyson said limiting Howard isn't by any means a guarantee of victory over Orlando.

"Not necessarily because of the way they shoot the ball," TC said. "A lot of their game is played through Dwight but a lot of their game is also the three-point shot…if we might have held them to 3 three-pointers I would have said yeah, but the way they shoot the ball, that makes it tough."

Howard scored just one point in the 14:28 TC spent in the game and Orlando backup center Marcin Gortat only scored two points as Tyson helped the Bobcats interior defense protect the paint.

"We just have to keep a body on him," Tyson said of Howard. "We have a lot of bodies we can put on him. We just have to keep him out of his sweet spots, make it tough on him down there."

With Howard a non-factor on offense, the Magic went to their shooters and Jameer Nelson, Rashard Lewis, JJ Redick and Mickael Pietrus combined to knock down 13 of 23 shots from behind the arc.

"They hit a lot of three point shots and we had a couple of turnovers when the game was close," Tyson said. "I thought we did a good job defensively of executing our game plan. They just made a lot of three-point shots."

TAKE A DEEP BREATH
The Bobcats survived a scare that could have changed the face of the entire series just before halftime.

As Gerald Wallace dove for a loose ball, he made contact with the knee of Stephen Jackson, sending Jackson to the ground in pain. Jackson was helped off the court toward the locker room, but X-Rays proved negative and it was diagnosed as a hyperextension of the knee.

"I didn't want to see that. He's a huge part of this team, if not the key, especially in this series," Tyson said. "We're really going to need him. I don't know how he's feeling now, I know he wasn't able to finish the game, but I hope he can come back."

Jackson came back for most of the second half but was lifted early in the fourth by coach Larry Brown and did not return.

"Jack is a warrior and a competitor. He wanted to play," Ty said. "Coach saw something he didn't like out there. I don't know if he was favoring it or the doctors told him something but he saw something he didn't like and he wanted to keep him out. It's just tough for coach to call either way."

Jackson is listed as day-to-day and said after Sunday's game he will definitely play in Game 2 on Wednesday.

NEXT UP
After a two-day break, the Bobcats and Magic get back at it on Wednesday in Orlando for game two of the best of seven series.

The Bobcats will attempt to silence Orlando's perimeter shooters while also limiting the impact of center Dwight Howard. Tip-off of game two is scheduled for 7 p.m. EST on TNT.