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Various players and coaches articulated this differently, but it came down to an essential truth:
The Charlotte Bobcats aren't good enough to deliver the effort they did Saturday and win.
They didn't guard – normally a given for this group. They didn't make free throws. And they sure didn't play like a team in the second half of a 104-99 loss to the New Orleans Hornets.
The gruesome second-half numbers: They allowed the Hornets 57 percent shooting. They missed seven free throws. They were outrebounded by five. And the next time they cut off the penetration of rookie point guard Darren Collison will be the first.
Collison scored 18 of his 24 points in the second half, and he did that off just nine shots from the field. Collison so tattered the defense that there were abundant open jump shots and second-chance opportunities on which the Hornets feasted.
All-Star Chris Paul might have been out with a knee injury, but that didn't stop the Hornets from still having the dominant point guard. And Raymond Felton and D.J. Augustin got virtually no help from their teammates.
"Everything was individual in the second half,'' said Bobcats forward Gerald Wallace, and he was talking about defense just as much as offense. "We didn't help, we didn't rotate and there was constant penetration.
"We played that team like everyone was about 'I.'
Stephen Jackson didn't see this as so much a matter of selfishness as a lack of effort. He's played on a championship team in San Antonio, and he felt the need to remind Charlotte teammates they've accomplished nothing by bobbing their heads above .500 at midseason.
"We had no energy – we didn't play hard as a team,'' said Jackson, who finished with 26 points and six assists. "We're not a great team, where teams are just going to fall down when they get here.
"I've been on teams that never took a night off. We've got to play every night and respect the game, and we didn't do that.''
They failed to do that to the extent of a 61-46 deficit after halftime, an emphatic reminder to their coach that playoff talk can form a mirage unless they get back to playing full-throttle.
"Everybody's talking that we're a playoff team. This just shows you how far we are'' from being a lock, coach Larry Brown said.
"That's the difference between being good and hoping to be good.''
