Hawks 107 Bobcats 90

Boxscore

There's no narrative to a game that doesn't counts. Hence, bullets...

• From Mike Woodson's pre-game media session (I'm the Courtney Sims of that group of reporters.):

"I think we'll sit down tomorrow and evaluate and make a decision and try to cut down possibly two or three guys."

"We'll probably carry 15 or 16 guys all the way to the end."

The last 3 pre-season games (Washington, @Miami, @Orlando) will be more serious in terms of who plays and how much.

• Joe Smith (left knee), Jason Collins (strained right quad), and Mo Evans (left knee) have yet to make their pre-season debuts. Jamal Crawford's (left calf strain) nine ineffective minutes Wednesday continue to constitute his only pre-season action. Garret Siler warmed up by his pulled right groin prevented his participation.
  
• For a roster this settled, are seven pre-season games too many?
  
• No Flip Murray tonight. Traffic in the Hawks blogosphere to plummet tomorrow.
• Tyson Chandler and Boris Diaw both missed their fourth straight pre-season game. Arguably the closest thing to a first-string post duo the Hawks have faced to date is Ben Wallace and Kwame Brown in Detroit on Sunday.
• Charlotte's first bucket came off a Raymond Felton post-up of Mike Bibby. It's probably not going to stop so the help D will need to get there faster once games, you know, count.
• Josh Smith got his first bucket on a layup off of a dribble-drive that developed out of the secondary break.
• On his second touch, Smith got to left block (again off the dribble), Charlotte stymied him but he did not force a shot nor did he turn the ball over. He found Marvin Williams for an open 21-footer. Williams missed the shot but there was a pleasantly high-percentage aesthetic to the possession.
• Despite five missed free throws and only two rebounds Smith's performance was generally positive. Even when matchups forced him to guard Gerald Wallace on the perimeter, Smith moved his feet well.
  
• First subs: Jeff Teague replaced Bibby. Juan Dixon replaced Joe Johnson. Othello Hunter replaced Josh Smith. Zaza Pachulia replaced Al Horford. Mario West replaced Marvin Williams.
  
• An analogy of marginal utility: Larry Brown : Mike Woodson :: Stephen Graham : Mario West
• I don't type the first draft of a bullet when Jeff Teague has the ball.
• Zaza Pachulia is a lot better than third- and fourth-string centers. He must love coming to Hawks camp every day.
• The absence of Diaw and Chandler exaggerates the relative smallness of the Bobcat roster. There wasn't really anyone for Othello Hunter to guard. Hence the fouls.
  
• Replacement ref thoughts: There was only one foul whistled in the first six-and-a-half minutes when mostly starters and entirely rotation players were on the court. Three of the first four fouls called were for illegal screens set off the ball.
  
• Things got worse: Marty McEachean called a ridiculous offensive foul on (an already T'd up) Gerald Wallace for playfully swatting away a hand check. McEachean knew better and his colleagues were too embarrassed to give Wallace a second T or to confront an agitated Larry Brown in the wake of that call. Someone gave Brown a technical during halftime, though.
  
• Much worse: Larry got his 2nd T from Kevin Scott, who never got within 35 feet of Brown before, during, or after the call. Brown tried to engage any of the refs on the occasion of his ejection but none would speak with or possibly even look at him. Rather than deal with the issue directly, Scott walked to the opposite end of the court and appeared to attempt to enlist a befuddled police officer in asking/making Brown leave the court.