Bobcats fall to Raptors, become first NBA team eliminated from playoffs

TORONTO, March 15 (Xinhua) – The Charlotte Bobcats became the first NBA team to bow out of the playoffs in the team’s 92-78 loss to the Toronto Raptors on Friday night in NBA action.

The loss dropped the Bobcats’ overall record to 14-51 on the season, an NBA worst.

Coming into the game, the Bobcats still had a slim of making the playoffs. With 18 games remaining on their 82-game schedule, they were exactly 18 wins behind the eighth place Milwaukee Bucks in the Eastern conference, who had a 32-31 record and 17 games left to play.

Had Charlotte won all of their remaining 18 games and Milwaukee lost all of their 17 games, Charlotte would have tied the Bucks in the standings with a 32-50 record. In this unlikely scenario, the Bobcats would still have required the five teams currently ahead of them in the standings to finish with a record lower than 32-50.

The elimination of the Bobcats means that they will miss the postseason in eight out of nine seasons.

Since their inaugural season in 2004-05, the Bobcats’ lone playoff appearance was in 2009-10, when they had a 44-38 record and finished seventh in the Eastern conference. Unfortunately, they were swept by the Dwight Howard and the Orlando Magic (4-0) in the first round.

With five weeks remaining in the regular season, the NBA playoff picture will become clearer with
further eliminations to come.

The top eight teams in the Eastern and Western conferences will advance to the playoffs which begin on April 20.

(Note: Article was not published on Xinhua for technical reasons)