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Ranking the most important games in Wizards-Bobcats history

Today's Breakfast Bullet-In gets you ready for Wednesday's critical Wizards-Bobcats game by looking back at some of the other most important games played between these two storied rivals.

By Jake Whitacre
Joy R. Absalon - USA Today Sports

Tonight, the Washington Wizards and Charlotte Bobcats are going to play a regular season game with playoff implications for both teams. If the Wizards win Wednesday, they go two games up on Charlotte and put themselves in a great position to hold the tiebreaker should the Bobcats still find a way to catch up before the end of the season. If they lose, Charlotte pulls even with Washington in the standings, and would hold the tiebreaker over Washington because they would have won three of the four head-to-head meetings this season.

This game is the most important game left on the Wizards' schedule (just ask John Wall), but it also represents the most important game in Wizards-Bobcats history. In the ten years these teams have shared a division, this is the first time both teams have been playoff-calibur at the same time.

But just because teams aren't playoff-calibur doesn't mean that games are completely irrelevant. So with that in mind, we decided to rank the five most important games in Wizards-Bobcats history. But first, let's take a look at some of the games that missed the cut:

  • December 23, 2008 - Bobcats 80, Wizards 72: You know it's a bad game when the winning team shoots 41.7 percent from the field.
  • April 23, 2012 - Wizards 101, Bobcats 73: This had to be near rock-bottom for Bobcat fans in the team's campaign that ended with the lowest winning percentage in league history. Charlotte allowed Jan Vesely to go 8 for 8 from the field and only one Bobcat had more than one assist.
  • November 24, 2012 - Bobcats 108, Wizards 106: The Bobcats handed the Wizards their eleventh straight loss to start the season. Byron Mullens led all scorers with 27 points. Byron Mullens. People paid money to see Byron Mullens be the leading scorer of an NBA game.
Now that we've gotten some of the ugliness of the past out of the way, here's the five most important games in Wizards-Bobcats history:

5. December 20, 2010 - Wizards 108, Bobcats 75: Yes, this looks like it a blowout in the same vein as some of the other games we mentioned, but this one is notable because it was Larry Brown's final game as a head coach in the NBA. A squad coached by Ed Tapscott and led by the starting lineup of Kirk Hinrich, Nick Young, Al Thornton, Andray Blatche and JaVale McGee convinced Michael Jordan that it was time to let Brown go.

4. March 23, 2010 - Bobcats 95, Wizards 86: The Bobcats moved a step closer to their first playoff berth in franchise history after pulling out a road win in D.C. The Wizards made it more difficult than Charlotte was expecting, especially considering Andray Blatche sat most of the game because he "didn't want to be coached" according to Flip Saunders. Fun times!

3. January 7, 2014 - Wizards 97, Bobcats 83: As the Wizards and Bobcats met for the second time this season, it was starting to become clear that both of these teams could be making a playoff run. A strong 18 point, 13 rebound performance from Marcin Gortat helped the Wizards come away with a nice road win. But most people will remember the game more for Gortat hinting at his vampire lifestyle and calling Jan Vesely "a black man in a white body."

2. March 31, 2014 - Bobcats 100, Wizards 94: The Bobcats drew closer to the coveted 6 seed with their win in Charlotte last week. The Wizards defense did a respectable job limiting Kemba Walker and Al Jefferson, but Chris Douglas-Roberts and Cody Zeller were just too much coming off the bench. Without the win last week. Wednesday's game would be much less critical. But alas, here we are.

1. April 4, 2007 - Bobcats 108, Wizards 100: Sure, this game may not have had playoff implications for the Wizards, but it effectively cancelled the Wizards' playoff plans for the next seven years, so it was a pretty big deal, we'd say.


***
  • As you saw yesterday, we're looking for a song to rally around as the Wizards head to the playoffs and we've already received some great stuff. Personally, I'm having a hard time picking between my two favorites. DavidDunn's original lyrics are amazing, but pancakes rap is a rap about pancakes.
  • In 2005, Marcin Gortat played on Orlando's Summer League team at the same time that Randy Wittman served as an assistant coach in Orlando. Randy Wittman remembers nothing about this.
  • New Redskin Tracy Porter is going wear number 22, just like Otto Porter. Believe it or not, it's not the first time two D.C. athletes have shared the same last name/number combo. Sean Taylor and Donnell Taylor had Taylor 21 on their jerseys from 2005-07.
  • Finally, here's blast from the past quote that will make old-school Bullets fans chuckle:

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