The Charlotte Bobcats exercised a fourth-year option on top scorer Gerald Henderson that will keep the guard/forward with the club through the 2012-13 NBA season, the team said on Wednesday (Thursday, PHL time).

Henderson, taken in the first round of the 2009 NBA Draft by Charlotte, is averaging 15.4 points, 4.6 rebounds and 1.8 assists per game this season with Bobcats.

Charlotte, the second-worst team in the league with a 3-15 record, currently is without guard and number two scorer D.J. Augustin, who is sidelined with a toe injury. — Reuters

Read More: Randy Wittman (A – WAS), Washington Wizards, Charlotte Bobcats

The Washington Wizards take on the Charlotte Bobcats on Wednesday night in a matchup of the bottom two teams in the Eastern Conference. Wednesday’s game marks the Wizards coaching debut of Randy Wittman, who took over the team on an interim basis after it fired Flip Saunders on Tuesday.

The Wizards are coming off a 20-point loss against the Philadelphia 76ers on Monday evening, which dropped them to 2-15 on the season and prompted Saunders’ dismissal. Charlotte, too, is looking to rebound from a humbling defeat: despite limiting All-Star forward Carmelo Anthony to a career-low one point on Tuesday, the Bobcats fell to the Knicks, 111-78. Charlotte shot 32.9 percent from the field.

Here’s everything you need to know about Wednesday’s matchup between the Wizards and Bobcats:

Game Date/Time: Wednesday, January 25; 7:00pm ET

Location: Verizon Center, Washington, DC

TV Schedule
Washington: Comcast SportsNet
Charlotte: Fox Sports South

Radio Schedule
Washington: The Fan 106.7 FM
Charlotte: The Fan 610 AM

For more on the Wizards, please visit Bullets Forever, SB Nation’s Wizards blog. For the perspective from the other side, please visit Rufus on Fire, SB Nation’s Bobcats blog.

CHARLOTTE – 

Mullens had his first workout with the Bobcats on Wednesday, after Monday’s trade from the Oklahoma City Thunder. The Bobcats need help at center and Mullens never got many chances to play in his two seasons in Oklahoma. The Bobcats will send a 2013 second-round pick to the Thunder as compensation for acquiring Mullens.

So now, fresh off those weekly prison games on a concrete slab, Mullens is ready to show what he can do.

“They helped me out a lot. They’re strong guys,” Mullens said of the inmates, some of them lifers, who he scrimmaged with all summer.

“Most of them knew who I was from Ohio. I remember I slipped along the baseline, and all of them came to pick me up. They knew I was an NBA player, and didn’t want me getting hurt.”

Mullens, a 7-footer, turned pro after a single season at Ohio State. The Thunder is loaded with big men, so he had little prospect of playing behind Kendrick Perkins and ex-Bobcat Nazr Mohammed.

Part of the adjustment was Mullens’ offensive skill set didn’t fit the Thunder’s idea of a center.

“They wanted me to be a back-to-the-basket kind of big, which takes away most of my game,” Mullens described. “I’m a face-up kind of guy, a step-out-and-knock-down-shots guy.”

Bobcats coach Paul Silas is fine with that. Silas coached Mullens years ago as part of an Adidas program for elite high school players.

“Whether he shoots jumpers or posts up, I don’t care,” Silas said. “Shooting midrange jumpers, fine. Shooting 3s, if he can make them. He’s got to rebound and he’s got to try to defend.”

During their meeting Wednesday, Silas told Mullens he’d be patient with the young player’s learning curve.

“If I make mistakes, he’s fine with it as long as I’m playing hard, doing the small things,” Mullens said. “On defense, they need someone to guard that big 5 man, and hopefully I’ll do it well.”

Notes: Point guard D.J. Augustin (hyperextended right elbow) practiced fully Wednesday, and appeared to show no ill effect from the injury, so it looks like he’ll play tonight against the Atlanta Hawks … Power forward Tyrus Thomas (sprained left ankle) missed a second day of practice and appears highly unlikely to play vs. the Hawks … The Bobcats made three cuts Wednesday, trimming Will Blalock, Ronald Dupree and Ismail Muhammad.

Kathy Willens/Associated Press

NEW YORK — NBA owners and players met Thursday for more than nine hours, hoping to reach a deal to end the lockout and save the season and very aware of the consequences if they fail.

Union executive committee member Roger Mason Jr. of the New York Knicks provided a little insight into the talks through Twitter. In response to fellow player T.J. Ford’s question about whether the lockout was over yet, wrote: “No bro. Still a ways away.”

This latest bargaining session came after players and owners met for 12 hours Wednesday, passing commissioner David Stern’s deadline for players to accept the league’s current proposal or face one that would be much worse.

He said he “stopped the clock” while this round of negotiations continues but warned the harsher proposal will be put into play if talks break down.

On Wednesday, they talked mostly about the salary cap and system issues that divide them and did not even discuss the division of basketball-related income, which is the other major obstacle. Owners are calling for a 50-50 split, which the players would consider if they get the concessions they seek on the system.

The league, however, repeatedly has said it must have both in the next collective bargaining agreement.

“The competitive issues are independent of the economic issues. Our goal is to have a system in which all 30 teams are competing for championships and if well managed, they have an opportunity to break even or make a profit,” said deputy commissioner Adam Silver.

“So we don’t see the ability to break even or make a profit as a trade-off for the ability to field a competitive team. So all those issues are still in play.”

Those issues largely relate to the spending rules for teams over the luxury tax threshold.

The NBA has sought to ban or reduce their ability to use the midlevel exception or participate in sign-and-trade deals, as well as impose a more punitive tax that players fear would deter teams from spending so much that it would act like a hard salary cap.

Union president Derek Fisher said after Wednesday’s talks that he couldn’t “characterize whether [owners] showed flexibility or not in certain system issues. Obviously, we’d have a deal done if the right flexibility was being shown.”

The union had nearly its entire executive committee in attendance, with Fisher and executive director Billy Hunter joined by players Chris Paul, Maurice Evans, Roger Mason Jr., Keyon Dooling, Theo Ratliff, Etan Thomas, Matt Bonner; attorneys Jeffrey Kessler and Ron Klempner and economist Kevin Murphy.

Management stuck with the same small group as Wednesday: Stern, Silver, Spurs owner Peter Holt, the chairman of the labor relations committee, and attorneys Rick Buchanan and Dan Rube.

Failure to make a deal would increase the calls for the union to decertify so the players can file a lawsuit against the league in court, a risky and lengthy tactic that likely would doom the 2011-12 season.

Union officials have downplayed the idea, but players might have no other leverage once the more severe proposal is put into play.

First published on November 11, 2011 at 12:00 am