Bobcats forwards Gerald Wallace and Boris Diaw combined to shoot 5-of-23 from the field. It's hard to keep your eyes on the basket when your head constantly swivels in Dalembert's direction.

"A lot of people will see he blocked a couple of shots and say, 'He didn't do that much,' " Wallace said of Dalembert's impact. "But he might have changed shots 30 times in that game."

The loss dropped the Bobcats to 13-24 and 0-2 on this road trip. They play the Washington Wizards tonight at Verizon Center.

It was telling that the Bobcats scored 34 points in the lane to Philadelphia's 58. Since the trade that brought Diaw and Raja Bell to Charlotte, there's been a concerted effort to score more in the post. But only center Emeka Okafor (24 points on 10-of-13 shooting) was effective in that regard, and many of Okafor's shots came open because Dalembert was going after Wallace or Diaw.

The Sixers scored 24 points off the Bobcats' 17 turnovers, and Wallace said even that problem related to Dalembert's presence.

"You can gamble more," Wallace said. "A guy like that allows you to press up on defense" because you're not afraid of the drive.

"You can almost dare the offense to go past you because there's always somebody back there" to block a shot.

Though the Bobcats led by two at halftime, coach Larry Brown knew his team was in trouble after the 76ers shot 62 percent in the second quarter.

"They just scored so easily," Brown said, "They had a lot more energy than we did."

That became apparent during a 14-2 Sixers run in the third quarter, with four of Philadelphia's five baskets coming on layups or alley-oop dunks. The Bobcats had to work far harder to score and got sloppy, committing three turnovers in that span.

To Brown, who coached Dalembert and Theo Ratliff with the Sixers, that's what shotblocking does.

"He was young when I had him. When we had him and Theo together, I thought we had the best two shotblockers in the league," Brown recalled.

"I'd take his 4.6 rebounds and four blocks a game anytime. I felt he affects shots as much as anyone can."

To see more of The Charlotte Observer, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.charlotteobserver.com. Copyright (c) 2009, The Charlotte Observer, N.C. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.