Sure, Larry Brown was searching for something -- anything -- that could shake the Charlotte Bobcats out of the second-half malaise that cost them home games against the Toronto Raptors and Denver Nuggets.
But Ryan Hollins? That one was a shocker. Hollins hadn't even been activated in the previous seven games, and was clearly 15th among 15 players on this roster. It wasn't that Hollins lacked for potential; he's a remarkable athlete for a 7-footer, in part due to his track-and-field background at UCLA.
However, he's excitable and error-prone, and that's not typically the kind of player who excels in Brown's cerebral approach to basketball. Brown played a hunch against the Jazz, activating Hollins, and playing him seven key minutes of the fourth quarter in an upset of the Jazz.
"The key to this game was Ryan; he gave us so much energy," Brown said. "He works hard, he brings energy and he's our most athletic big."
Who knows if this is more than a one-game blip? Hollins could either jump into the rotation or be thrown into a trade for a combination of other players. Either way, he might have saved his NBA career by playing as he did against the Jazz.
BOBCATS 104, JAZZ 96: If any one thing plagued the Bobcats' first four seasons, it was foul shooting. Not Friday. They made 19-of-20 from the line to hold on to just the sort of game they habitually lost in previous seasons.
