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Shooting guard Jason Richardson described the Charlotte Bobcats' 100-90 victory against the Minnesota Timberwolves on Monday as one of those good news/bad news jokes:
“The good thing is he won the game,”' Richardson said of center Emeka Okafor's 24-point, 10-rebound, 5-block game. “The bad thing is we're going to demand he do that every night.”
Richardson (25 points) meant Okafor being a presence at both ends of the floor. There have been times too often in this 6-11 season when Okafor was nothing but a goalie, defending and rebounding, but going entire halves without posting up and demanding the ball.
Monday the offense flowed through the big guy and he delivered, making 9-of-14 shots from the field and 6-of-6 from the free throw line. It wasn't just what he did, it was what that forced the Timberwolves to do – make hard choices defensively that left them halfway between the lane and the Bobcats' outside shooters.
That made for Charlotte's 54-percent shooting night from 3-point range.
“If you have a post presence, it makes this game SO much easier altogether,” Adam Morrison said of the open looks Charlotte's jump-shooters got. “It makes the other team make real choices (defensively) and that's never fun.”
Okafor's 14 shot attempts were his season high. It was not uncommon earlier in the season for him to go four games in a row taking six or fewer shots. Credit point guard Raymond Felton (a season-high 14 assists) for placing Okafor in optimum positions to finish plays.
“Ray is such an exceptional penetrator. He can get to the basket any time he wants,” Okafor said. “Tonight our offense flowed so much better than it has.”
A telling statistic in that regard: The Bobcats had 28 assists and 10 turnovers. The Timberwolves had 18 turnovers and 17 assists.
Obviously it helped that the competition wasn't fierce. The Timberwolves are 4-12 and one of the few teams in the NBA clearly inferior to the Bobcats athletically. Their one true weapon, big man Al Jefferson, shot 3-of-11 from the field and finished with eight points and nine rebounds.
Okafor was the primary defender on Jefferson.
“Jefferson is a handful,” said Bobcats coach Larry Brown. “We were thinking all day about doubling him.”
Instead it was the Timberwolves, wondering how much to double-team that big guy at the other end.
