Bobcats Take Another Step Forward and Hand the Nets a Setback

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - It's late March and the Charlotte Bobcats still matter in the N.B.A. playoff picture. Who would have figured that from a team that set a record for the worst winning percentage in league history just two years ago?

To be fair, these aren't the Bobcats of 2011-12, when they were 7-59 in the lockout-shortened season, or even last year's version, which was merely awful at 21-61. These Bobcats have a new coach, Steve Clifford, a post presence, Al Jefferson, and a chance to make fans forget how horrible this franchise has been for so long.

That is if the Bobcats can make the playoffs for only the second time in franchise history - hardly a lock for a team that has made the leap to middling success but is still learning how to be a winner. They are currently seventh in the Eastern Conference and can still fall out of the playoff picture, something they are fighting to avoid, as Wednesday's 116-111 overtime victory against the Nets at Time Warner Cable Arena attests.

Wednesday's game was also critical for the Nets, who are focused on moving up to fourth in the conference and possibly overtaking Toronto for the Atlantic Division lead.

The Knicks, who are in ninth place in the conference, are hoping that the Bobcats, or the eighth-place Atlanta Hawks, will falter in the regular season's final games.

The Nets' task became a little harder after Wednesday's loss. They entered the game with a depleted roster; they were without Kevin Garnett (back spasms), Brook Lopez (broken foot), Andrei Kirilenko (sprained left ankle) and Marcus Thornton (bruised lower back).

They did have Deron Williams, who missed the morning shootaround because of an undisclosed illness. He hit 7 of 9 shots in the first quarter, including 4 of 6 from 3-point range, and scored 18 as the Nets took a 28-24 lead.

Still, the Bobcats stayed with the Nets throughout because of Jefferson, the prized free-agent acquisition. Jefferson, averaging 21 points and 10 rebounds a game going in, had 22 points in the first half to counter Williams.

A flagrant foul on the Nets' Jorge Gutierrez, who was ejected with 6 minutes 42 seconds to go in the fourth quarter for pulling down Charlotte's Cody Zeller under the basket, helped the Bobcats build a late 98-90 lead. The Nets rallied to tie the score at 103-103 with 59.8 seconds to go in regulation on a Williams layup.

A Williams basket with 26.8 seconds to go tied the score again, at 105-105, to send the game to overtime. From there, Chris Douglas-Roberts scored 5 points, including a baseline jumper, to give the Bobcats a 116-111 victory.

Williams finished with 29 for the Nets; Jefferson had 35 points and 15 rebounds to pace the Bobcats.

Jefferson, a free agent from Utah, was coaxed to Charlotte in the off-season. He didn't worry about the team's 28-120 record over the previous two seasons.

'I liked the coaching staff here,' Jefferson said Wednesday morning of his decision to sign with the Bobcats. 'I liked the group of guys, the young guys they had here.

'I just knew we had an opportunity to turn things around.'

Much of the credit for that has been given to Clifford, a longtime N.B.A. assistant who made stops with the Knicks and the Los Angeles Lakers, among others, before being hired by the Bobcats. Clifford replaced Mike Dunlap, who was a college assistant when he was given the Bobcats' coaching job by Michael Jordan - a mistake Jordan essentially admitted in replacing Dunlap after one season.

Clifford, the third coach in three seasons, appears to finally be the answer for Charlotte.

'Obviously, different coaches bring different philosophies, styles,' said Gerald Henderson, one of only three players left from that 2011-12 team along with Kemba Walker and Bismack Biyombo. (D J White, who was on that team, rejoined the Bobcats earlier this season.) 'But there's something to having experience in this league.'

Among other things, Clifford has helped the Bobcats become a better defensive team. They went into Wednesday's game allowing 97.2 points per game, fourth lowest in the league.

'I really didn't know about wins and losses, but I was confident from the film that I watched before I interviewed that we had really good competitors and that's really played out - guys I think who are hungry and want to do well,' Clifford said.

For the Bobcats, the turnaround was in some ways even simpler than that.

'We had no choice but to get better,' Henderson said.

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