CHARLOTTE, N.C. - The Atlanta Hawks rambled past Charlotte, 116-96, on Saturday night in Time Warner Cable Arena, handing the Bobcats their 11th straight loss.
The Bobcats' win-loss record now sounds like the name of an airplane - 7-47 - but their flight has been long delayed. As the only NBA team still in the single digits in victories, the Bobcats are at least coming nearer to guaranteeing that they will have the most ping pong balls popping in the May 30 NBA draft lottery.
Atlanta (34-23) is playing for playoff seeding and looked like it, quickly putting the Bobcats away in the second half. The Hawks placed eight players in double figures, paced by Joe Johnson with 18 points.
"The rebounding was a problem," said Bobcats coach Paul Silas - no one on his team grabbed more than five boards and the Bobcats were outrebounded by 11 as a whole. "We're young. We're still trying to get there."
The Bobcats were led by a career scoring night from reserve point guard Cory Higgins, who had a game-high 22 points. Bobcats rookie Kemba Walker went 6-for-26 from the field Friday night at Milwaukee but didn't get up nearly that many shots Saturday, going 3-for-8 for 10 points as Silas played Walker and Higgins almost evenly in minutes.
"He's not a good shooter at this point," Silas said before the game of Walker, adding that the rookie needed to fix a technical flaw in his shooting in the offseason to become the "amazing" player Silas continues to think he can be. Walker continues to start at point guard as D.J. Augustin sat out with tendinitis in his right knee.
Corey Maggette returned Saturday night from an Achilles tendon strain but Silas did not start him because he had been pleased with the chemistry of Friday's starting five in a close loss. That group began well again Saturday, with Byron Mullens (31 points, 14 rebounds Friday) scoring nine points in the first quarter. The Bobcats led the Hawks, 23-19, as the quarter concluded.
That was as good as it got for the Bobcats, however.
"It kind of went downhill from there," Silas said. The Bobcats were quickly outscored 29-13 in the second quarter and never mounted a serious comeback threat.
By halftime, Charlotte was down by 12 and less than three minutes into the third quarter, Atlanta had rolled to a 22-point lead. From there, it was just a matter of playing out the string - even 37-year-old Jerry Stackhouse played five minutes for the Hawks late in the game.
Mullens, who had the first 30-point night of any Bobcat all season on Friday, cooled off considerably Saturday after the first quarter. He ended up with 17 points on 7-for-19 shooting. Maggette had only six points and the Bobcats allowed the Hawks 56 points inside the paint, including numerous dunks.
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