Matt Carroll has taken to calling himself the Charlotte Bobcats' "placekicker." Like any good nickname, that's funny because it's also accurate.

Check how much and when Carroll played in Philadelphia and Chicago, and you'll see how he's been channeling Carolina Panther John Kasay. Carroll sat and sat and sat until the last two minutes, or perhaps last two seconds, remained in a tight game.

And then he was suddenly inserted to do one thing perfectly. In Kasay's case, that's nailing a field goal. In Carroll's case, it's making a pair of free throws.

He did it against the Sixers with seven seconds left in regulation. Carroll's free throws could have clinched a win, except Gerald Wallace missed a defensive switch on the ensuing possession.

The point here is Carroll doesn't play much, but when he does play, it's all-in. That's different. Stephen Jackson has twice this season called Carroll the most professional guy in the NBA for his ability to stay so focused no matter how long he sits.

"Here I'll go two games without playing and then all of a sudden in the third game it's you come in and shoot free throws to ice the game," said Carroll, a career 85 percent foul-shooter.

"It shows how much confidence they have in me. I wasn't thinking, 'Aw, I haven't even played in this game and now I'm just going in for a couple of seconds.'

"A field-goal kicker is one of the most critical parts of a (football) game. It's important, and I welcome (a comparable) challenge."

Carroll wouldn't have embraced this in his first stint as a Bobcat. He played 41/2 seasons here, earning a fat contract, before being traded to Dallas in the winter of 2009. The Mavericks traded Carroll back to the Bobcats last summer in the deal that acquired Erick Dampier's unguaranteed contract.

Playing for the Mavericks was a mixed blessing. They won a lot and team owner Mark Cuban treats his players exceedingly well. But Carroll's minutes were sporadic at best.

The experience taught him to keep caring whether he played, but not to mind so much that it was distracting to his performance.

"What choice do you really have?" Carroll described. "If you're not prepared and a pro and a good teammate, you're not doing your job.

"If you don't do all that, you won't be in this league very long, and it's a pretty good job to have. Not something I want to give up."

The Bobcats have a star at shooting guard in Jackson and are developing a former lottery pick, Gerald Henderson, as Jackson's backup. So for Carroll to play, he needs to be a specialist the way he was in Philadelphia and Chicago.

"It's all mental," Carroll described. "It's a matter of trying to get yourself to relax and feel like you're just at the end of practice shooting 100 free throws. Get that routine down (like when) I made 184 in a row."