Everyone on Charlotte's roster, combined, has a total of 858 playoff points and 15 starts in the postseason. The Heat numbers in those categories: 14,965 points and 727 starts. Plus, the Heat franchise has 103 all-time playoff wins, while the Bobcats have exactly zero. In theory, none of that should matter Sunday, but most would agree playoff basketball is just different -- so Charlotte will probably have to do some learning on the fly.
“Kobe had said (after the play) I wasn’t hugged enough as a child,” Bell recalled. “My mom kind of found him after the instance and we had beat them and offered him a hug in the bowels of the Phoenix arena. She really feels a part of that story.”
See, this is what bush league franchises do. Their biggest star (Big Al) gets a bad injury, and they LEAVE HIM OUT THERE playing on it, aggravating the injury for no good reason. Charlotte is not winning that playoff series. Plantar fasciitis (or whatever he has) is not something to mess around with. He was visibly hobbling and limping around. If you want this guy to be your anchor in the paint, if you want him on the floor in game 1 of next regular season, you sit that man down.
It reminds me of the year when the Blazers had Brandon Roy playing on his bad knees a week (a WEEK!) after getting arthroscopic surgery on them, just so they could push the higher-seeded Suns to 6 games in a meaningless first-round series. They let him dig his own NBA grave and now he'll never play again. Way to go, PDX.
