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Four straight wins have the injury-plagued Charlotte Bobcats right back in the race for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

What a difference a week makes.

Much has changed since a demoralizing 111-83 defeat to the Indiana Pacers in Charlotte last Wednesday night that, at the time, landed the Bobcats at 10th in the Eastern Conference — a full four games back of eighth place including the Pacers’ tiebreaker.

Bobcats’ head coach Paul Silas said after that game his team would not wave the white flag with 12 games left in the regular season.

"I’m not going to let them lay down and quit; that’s not even a possibility," Silas said. "That’s not going to happen."

The Bobcats’ coach, visibly exasperated as he sat at the podium after the loss to Indy, called out his players discouraging play.

"The thing that gets me is that we go over things in shootaround and how we’re going to play situations and that kind of thing, then we go out and don’t do it," Silas said. "That, to me, is just a no-no. We’ve got to be more disciplined.

"That’s probably the most disappointing because we don’t adhere to our principles," he continued. "That’s all I ask: do your principles and if they don’t work then it’s not on you. But when you don’t do them and then you come back to the bench and [make excuses], I don’t want to hear excuses and there’s been a lot of that – so we have to deal with it."

It appears, over the past week at least, those principles have been followed and the excuses have been nullified. Even though they’ve been playing with less than a full deck over the past four games (key players Stephen Jackson, Tyrus Thomas, Shaun Livingston and Kwame Brown have all missed time), the Bobcats have shown a renewed intensity to go along with a more consistent effort on the court.

"We still want to play," second-year guard Gerald Henderson said after practice Thursday. "We still want to make the playoffs and guys care. There’s a sense of urgency in our play and you can tell, especially at the end of games. We’ve just got to keep that up."

This "sense of urgency" has culminated in the Bobcats pulling out victories in a series of meaningful games that frankly didn’t seem winnable after the disaster at home against Indiana.

After trailing by double-digits to begin the fourth quarter in Boston against the Celtics, Charlotte responded by outscoring the C’s 30-15 in a pivotal final frame for an improbable 83-81 victory. Just one day later, at home against the New York Knicks, the Bobcats didn’t allow NY to even get a whiff of the lead after the first quarter, charging past the Carmelo Anthony-led Knicks 114-106.

Charlotte followed this up with back-to-back wins, starting with a frenetic, 87-86 win at home Monday against the hard-charging Milwaukee Bucks — a team one game ahead of the Bobcats in the standings at this time last week. Then Wednesday night, the Bobcats took down a reinvigorated Cleveland Cavaliers squad that had put a beat down on the Miami HEAT just a night before.

The Bobcats battled their way to a 98-97 win against the Cavs, this with pivotal reserves Livingston and Thomas out of the lineup and the team’s leading scorer Jackson in mothballs after halftime due to a lingering left hamstring strain.

"It was a good win for us," Henderson said of the W at home against the Cavs. "All of these games down the stretch, no matter who we’re playing, are all big for us.  The Pacers won [Wednesday night], so it just goes to show that we can’t really worry about what they’re doing.  We just have to win our own games and see what happens."

This stunning turnaround has placed Charlotte right in the thick of things in the race for eighth in the East. In fact, heading into Friday night’s matchup in Orlando with the Magic, the Bobcats find themselves just one game back of the Pacers (two with the tiebreaker) and tied with Indiana in the loss column at 42 with two weeks remaining in the regular season.

"We could have very easily tossed it in and not given ourselves a chance, but these guys are amazing right now," Silas said. "They just won’t give up, and I love these guys and what they’re putting out right now."

It seems this Charlotte team is finally starting to gel after bringing in two new faces, and now key contributers, at the trade deadline.

In each of the last four wins a different person has stepped up in the final frame to deliver the Bobcats to a win. From the aforementioned Henderson hitting clutch mid-range jumpers and going all out by diving for loose balls with the game on the line, to D.J. White getting the team back in the game against Boston by leading the Bobcats in scoring off the bench, or Boris Diaw scoring a season-high 26 points and nearly messing around and getting a triple-double against the Cavaliers, this team is pulling out victories thanks to team-wide contributions.

A total of three different Bobcats have led the team in scoring during the four-game winning streak.

"We’re playing really well together," Henderson said. "We had 33 assists [against the Cavaliers] which shows that we’re really moving the ball and looking for each other and playing very unselfish.  I think that’s the key to our success, especially on a night when [Stephen Jackson] goes out and you can’t just give it to someone.

{AUTHOR_BOX}"We’ve played unselfish basketball, and if we play like that we feel like we have enough talented guys to knock down shots and make plays."

The lack of a defined number one guy for spurts over the past few weeks seems to have served the Bobcats well as this young team continues to try to get on the same page. Newer players like White and Dante Cunningham are contributing off the bench, while even the longer-tenured, younger guys like Henderson and D.J. Augustin are able to showcase their ability in the clutch.

"The chemistry has been outstanding on this team," Silas said after practice Thursday. "They aren’t really looking to have one guy do it. They’re passing the basketball, moving it. When a guy gets an open shot, he’s taking it and, more importantly, making shots.

"You have to have that guy eventually but, for right now, that’s good."

To put in perspective the relaxed and good-natured mood around the team, consider that players were throwing a football around after practice Thursday. Players were laughing and joking as backup center DeSagana Diop tried his hand at throwing the football — launching an end-over-end, wounded duck in the direction of no one in particular as Augustin fell to the floor in laughter.

This type of camaraderie is equivalent to the way this team treats each other on the court and behind the scenes.

Following Wednesday night’s game, after a resounding block just before the final buzzer secured a win against the Cavaliers, coaches and teammates showered backup forward Dominic McGuire with praise. This team doesn’t have a pecking order and guys not only respect one another, but enjoy being around each other.

"I just think that we’re really together as a team and we like each other," Silas said. "We’re playing hard together and the chemistry on this team is unbelievable right now.  That’s what I have to attribute it to.  On the court, defensively and offensively we’ve been hanging tough, but when a guy makes a good shot and he sees everyone on that team up, clapping and that kind of thing [it makes a difference]. You should have seen how they treated Dominic in the locker room after the game."

With the team growing and maturing, Coach Silas feels like the Bobcats are ready to take the next step and make a furious push over the final two weeks of the season.

"Not to be cheesy," Silas said, "but I really think they’re beginning to be believe they can get it done – and that’s what’s most important."

The current surge marks only the third time this season Charlotte has won three or more contests in a row, and four straight ties the longest winning streak for the Bobcats this season. With the way they’ve played lately (and the way the Pacers are struggling), maybe Bobcats’ players and coaches aren’t the only ones starting to believe a postseason birth is a realistic possibility.

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