January 26, 2013; Charlotte, NC, USA; Charlotte Bobcats guard Gerald Henderson (9) takes a breather during a foul shot during the game against the Minnesota Timberwolves at Time Warner Cable Arena. Bobcats win 102-101. Mandatory Credit: Sam Sharpe-USA TODAY Sports

The Charlotte Bobcats have had plenty of woes in late game situations, especially at home. But for the first time in 16 games, Bobcats fans got to drive home happily.

Gerald Henderson made a three pointer with under five seconds left to give the Bobcats a 102-101 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves Saturday night. The victory snapped a 16-game home losing streak for the Bobcats, who entered Saturday’s game with the NBA’s worst home record. The Bobcats streak was two short of matching a home losing streak by the 1993-94 Dallas Mavericks.

Four of the Bobcats guards hit double digits in scoring. Kemba Walker had 25 points, in addition to eight rebounds and assists. Ramon Sessions and Ben Gordon combined for 41 points off the bench. Henderson, the hero on Saturday, had 15 points.

The Timberwolves once again played without their starting frontcourt, as Kevin Love and Nikola Pekovic both sat with injuries. Greg Steimsma and Derrick Williams started in their places, and combined for 16 points.

The Bobcats frontcourt didn’t have much production outside of Bismack Biyombo. Biyombo had 10 points, 13 rebounds and two blocks in 32 minutes.

Luke Ridnour led the Timberwolves with 22 points. Ricky Rubio had 14 points and eight assists, starting for the injured Alexey Shved. The Timberwolves continued their troubles on the road, and haven’t won on the road since Jan. 3.

Yesterday’s win was a very welcome sight. For a while, the writers here at Roberto Gato have wanted to see some type of progress in late game situations for the team. While Gerald Henderson certainly won’t make a big-time three like that every night, a game like this can certainly give him and the rest of the team confidence going forward.

These are the type of winnable games at home that you never want to lose. The Timberwolves were missing their two best players and to their credit still competed. But you ultimately wanted to see the Bobcats take advantage of their road struggles and play with some extra intensity to pull out a win.

And what more can be said about Kemba Walker? After a disappointing rookie season, Kemba has done a complete 180 and just had a different demenanor on the court. He’s confident, his leadership is improving every game, and he’s just an exciting player to watch. If Walker was on a half-way decent team, there’s no doubt in my mind that he’d be on the all-star team. He’s also a Top-5 candidate for most improved player.

The Bobcats perimeter scoring is very dangerous. A lot of teams look at their schedule and see the Bobcats listed, and think it’s an easy win. Sometimes, it’s the case. But you can’t sleep on the scoring depth on the perimeter for the Bobcats. They have four guard averaging double digits, and all of them are talented enough to drop 20 on you every given night. If the Bobcats were getting any type of respectable contributions from their frontcourt, they’d be a competent team.

We’ll see if the Bobcats can take something from this win, as they head to Chicago Monday to run with the Bulls.

Jan 21, 2013; Charlotte, NC, USA Charlotte Bobcats small forward Michael Kidd-Gilchrist (14) looks to pass the ball while Houston Rockets small forward Chandler Parsons (25) defends during the second half at Time Warner Cable Arena. The Rockets defeated the Bobcats 100-94. Mandatory Credit: Jeremy Brevard-USA TODAY Sports

The Charlotte Bobcats and Minnesota Timberwolves are both losers of three straight. Saturday one team will snap their mini-losing streak and hope to rack up a few wins heading into the end of January.

In 2013, the Bobcats effort and intensity has been a lot more visible. The team has played some close games, but has failed to execute most of the time down the stretch.

Kemba Walker has been on a hot five-game stretch for the Bobcats, averaging just under 20 points, while shooting 49% from the field and 46% from three. Walker leads the way for a Bobcats team who continues to lead the NBA in backcourt scoring with 51.8 per game.

Minnesota’s guard play has shown some promise at times this season with the addition of Alexey Shved and contributions of Luke Ridnour and J.J. Barea. But with Ricky Rubio still getting his in-game rhythm back after returning from a knee injury, the Timberwolves backcourt isn’t a huge threat to score the ball.

Shved might not play in today’s game after sitting out yesterday against the Wizards with an ankle injury.

Normally Minnesota’s starting frontcourt of Kevin Love and most-improved player candidate Nikola Pekovic is the teams bread and butter. Both players are double double machines and bruise the other teams frontcourts into oblivion.

Having Love and Pekovic in the lineup would have been a big problem for the Bobcats mediocre big men. The Bobcats are dead last in frontcourt scoring and 29th in opponents frontcourt scoring. It’s been the team’s biggest problem all year, and has just become a liability on the floor.

Love and Pekovic though are out with injuries. Pekovic has missed the last four games with a thigh contusion, while Love is out indefinitely after re-injuring his right hand. The Timberwolves will likely start Derrick Williams and Greg Stiemsma in their place. Williams, a former #2 overall pick, has struggled with consistency and finding a role with Minnesota this season, but could be in for a big game against the Bobcats big men.

Minnesota’s injuries are a big part of why they have dropped eight of their last nine. When healthy, Minnesota is one of the most exciting teams to watch in the NBA. Head Coach Rick Adelman is always known for putting out teams who play a great brand of basketball, share the rock, and aim for balanced production. It’s been tough to do that with injuries to their three best players.

The Wolves have also struggled on the road the entire season, with just a 6-16 record. It’d be a concern for the Timberwolves entering this game, if Charlotte didn’t have a league worst 5-18 record at home.

Overall there doesn’t seem to be a clear advantage for either team heading into tonight, which should mean a pretty close game. If it is, we’re hoping to see some actual progress out of the Bobcats late-game executing and decision making.

Nov 14, 2012; Minneapolis, MN, USA; Charlotte Bobcats point guard Kemba Walker (15) is congratulated by teammates during the fourth quarter against the Minnesota Timberwolves at Target Center. Bobcats won 89-87. Mandatory Credit: Greg Smith-US PRESSWIRE

The Charlotte Bobcats are 4-3.

They have four wins and three losses.

Their winning percentage is .571.

They have more wins than losses.

You can say it however you want, as many times as you want, and it never gets old.

This team, which became the worst in NBA history last year, is sitting 1.5 games behind the Miami heat in the NBA’s Southeast division, because it just won the second game of a back-to-back in Minnesota Wednesday night.

The ‘Cats opened up a 15 point lead on the Timberwolves heading into halftime, and built that lead to as large as 16 in the second half.

But Minnesota came back, and it took a Kemba Walker shot as time expired to send the Bobcats out of the Target Center winners.

The former UCONN star continued his impressive early season play by scoring 22 points, grabbing four rebounds, dishing five assists and recording four steals to lead his team to an 89-87 victory.

It was the Bobcats third victory in as many games.

Yes.

They’ve won three in a row.

No, it doesn’t make sense.

Yes, it is getting close to December 21, 2012.

No, personally, I think the Mayans believed we’d be entering a period of intense change, not Armageddon.

I know, right? The Bobcats are the perfect example of this (yeah, you thought I was just going off on another tangent for no reason, didn’t you?).

Not even a year ago, three wins in a row was a pipe dream. Now, it’s a reality.

Did I mention the Bobcats have a winning record? Yeah, they’re 4-3.

Ramon Sessions was also crucial in this victory. He dropped 18 points, six rebounds and four assists in 32 minutes.

Michael Kidd-Gilchrist only scored two points in 17 minutes, but Tyrus Thomas picked up the slack and dropped 10 points, three blocks and four rebounds in just 18 minutes.

For the Timberwolves, Andrei Kirilenko went all Kobe on Charlotte, with 26 points, 12 rebounds and two blocks, but none of his teammates scored more than 16 points.

The ‘Cats shot 45 percent to Minnesota’s 38 percent, and turned the ball over just 15 times.

Charlotte will look to improve their record to 5-3 and win their fourth straight game on Saturday when they take on the Memphis Grizzlies.

I promise I’ll do something crazy if they win.

March 28, 2012; Charlotte, NC, USA; Charlotte Bobcats guard Kemba Walker (1) prepares to shoot while he is defended by Minnesota Timberwolves guard Luke Ridnour (13) during the game at Time Warner Cable Arena. Timberwolves win 88-83. Mandatory Credit: Sam Sharpe-US PRESSWIRE

Well, the Charlotte Bobcats are .500 this far (yes, this far… they’ve been bad for a while) into a season for the first time since 2009. What are the chances they can get to over .500 tonight against the Minnesota Timberwolves?

Well, they aren’t terrible, but they aren’t good either.

These Bobcats haven’t been very good on back-to-backs in recent years, and they certainly haven’t been good when the second game has been on the road.

Plus, The T-Wolves, even though they’re without their two best players, Ricky Rubio and Kevin Love, are still a good team.

At 5-2, they’ve surpassed their early season expectations, and beat good teams like Dallas, Brooklyn and Indian on the heels of some stellar defensive play. They’re second in the league in points allowed, at just 88 per game. They’re also 10th in rebounding and 12th in assists.

Sadly for folks in the Twin Cities, their team will be without Brandon Roy, J.J. Barea and the team’s leading scorer Nikola Pekovic.

That means a ton of the responsibility for winning this game will be shouldered by none other than the boy with the dragon tattoo, Andre Kirilenko.

Charlotte should look to lean on their guards in this one, with Kemba Walker and Ramon Sessions coming off big performances in their past two games.

Luke Ridnour, a 31-year-old, nine year NBA veteran will start and see most of the minutes at point guard for Minnesota. There’s no reason the Bobcats plan shouldn’t be to go right at him the entire game.

Tip off is scheduled for 8 o’clock pm at the Target Center in Minneapolis.

June 28, 2012; Newark, NJ, USA; NBA commissioner David Stern in attendance during the 2012 NBA Draft at the Prudential Center. Mandatory Credit: Jerry Lai-US PRESSWIRE

It looks like David Stern is actually serious about his new flopping policy. The NBA gave Jose Barea and Donald Sloan warnings for what the league perceived as flops in the first week of the year.

Here are the two flops the league decided were atrocious enough deal out punishments for.

Sloan totally flopped. But if the league is calling what Barea did flopping, its going to have a hard time explaining its inconsistently to questionable calls down the road (like on that is linked a few paragraphs down in this story).

The next time either of these guys are cited for flopping, they’ll be fined $5,000.

What’s yet to be seen about the league’s new flopping policy is whether they’ll apply to players people have actually heard of before.

This video of LeBron James reacting very late to a Carmelo Anthony foul (it was a foul) was posted on YouTube three days ago. It looks strikingly similar to the Barea foul and flop, except this one happened while the flopper was posting up.

Oh, and here’s Omir Asik doing his best Johnny Depp impression, and Darius Morris looking like he stepped on a grenade,

If the league wants people to take this policy seriously, it has to become more consistent with dishing out warnings and fines as the year goes on.