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Do to them what they did to you.
Simple as that sounds, it encompasses what it took for the Charlotte Bobcats to end a five-game losing streak to the Milwaukee Bucks. Friday in the Midwest, the Bobcats gave the Bucks 30 points via their own turnovers.
So in the Saturday rematch, a 102-92 Charlotte victory, the Bobcats converted 17 Bucks turnovers into 29 points.
“They outworked us. We had to be more aggressive,” Bobcats forward Boris Diaw said of Friday's 28-point loss in Milwaukee. “All that energy (Saturday) came from being aggressive defensively.”
Diaw (21 points, seven assists and six rebounds) defined that aggression, as did Gerald Wallace (24 points and three steals). While they gave up 50 percent shooting to the Bucks, they played the passing lanes assertively enough to get a bushel of easy baskets.
Coach Larry Brown walked away from Friday's game thinking his team played terrible defense. But as he reviewed the video, he decided the real problem was a string of costly turnovers; not the calculated risks that sometimes make for easy scores, but those sloppy giveaways that send the other team racing toward its basket.
Saturday they stressed efficiency, with Brown leaning on veteran forward Juwan Howard for over 14 minutes. Score 29 points off the other team's turnovers and make 29-of-33 free throws, and it's hard to lose an NBA game.
“We had problems with our defense, but that was really about being careless with the ball,” Brown said. “And then we defended (Michael) Redd much better.”
Redd's scoring was roughly halved (31 points Friday to 17 Saturday).
The other improvement was Wallace figuring out how to beat defenses more focused on his drives. The Bobcats are committed to getting the ball to the rim via Wallace, Diaw and Emeka Okafor (14 points, six rebounds). Wallace says teams are backing off to prevent the drive and doing anything they can to deny Okafor the ball.
The Bucks' attempt at that got chippy in the fourth quarter, resulting in the first five-point possession in Bobcats history, courtesy of forward Charlie Villanueva.
First he threw Wallace to the floor, drawing a flagrant foul. Wallace hit two free throws and the Bobcats got back possession. In the interim, Villanueva drew a technical foul, with Matt Carroll making the free throw. And finally, Villanueva fouled Wallace again, bringing two more free throws.
