Bobcats aim for franchise-record 7th straight win in Indy vs. Pacers

Basketball Betting Lines

03/16/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The surging Charlotte Bobcats will try to stretch their winning streak to a franchise-high seven straight games tonight, when they take on the Indiana Pacers on the road at Conseco Fieldhouse.

Charlotte has won six in a row and opened a brief road trip with Sunday's 96-89 victory over the Orlando Magic in central Florida behind 28 points, six rebounds and six assists from Stephen Jackson.

Raymond Felton finished with 16 points and seven assists for the Bobcats, who also produced six-game tear from January 9-20. Bobcats star Gerald Wallace sat out with an ankle injury and is expected to miss Tuesday's game.

"Big win is an understatement," Jackson said after snapping a seven-game slide to the Magic. "Without having Gerald here, our All-Star, our sense of urgency really showed."

Jackson has scored 20 points or more in 15 of his last 22 games, averaging 22.6 points on .440 shooting in that span. The Bobcats are 10-23 as the visitor and sit even with Miami for the sixth seed in the Eastern Conference. With a record of 34-31 entering tonight's game, Charlotte is one win shy of tying the team record of 35 wins in a season, which was set last year.

Indiana is playing out the string and has lost two straight and six of its last seven games, including Sunday's 98-94 setback at Milwaukee in the finale of a short two-game road trip.

Danny Granger led all scorers with 29 points and Troy Murphy added 14 points and 13 boards for the Pacers. Earl Watson and Brandon Rush netted 15 and 13 points, respectively, in defeat.

"They're a good defensive team. I thought we had great looks, we just didn't make shots," Pacers head coach Jim O'Brien said.

The Pacers are 14-16 as the host this season

Charlotte and Indiana have split a pair of meetings this season and 16 matchups overall. The Bobcats have dropped seven of 10 trips to Indy.

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Big 12 Conference betting odds

Work left to do: Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, Kansas State

Texas joins Texas A&M and Kansas as locks after getting league win No. 11. Texas Tech greatly helped its own hopes and crippled OK State's with the two-point win Saturday. Is K-State the last reasonable hopeful? Could be an elimination match in Stillwater on Tuesday, at least for the Cowboys.

Work left to do:

Texas Tech [18-11 (7-7), RPI: 44, SOS: 12] A critical two-point win over OK State leaves the Red Raiders with Baylor and at Iowa State left. Get both and the Red Raiders likely are good to go. Get one and there could be some interesting comparisons with a K-State team that could finish two or three games "ahead" of them in the standings but doesn't have any of the quality wins Texas Tech has. Not a lot in nonconference play (against Arkansas in Little Rock being the best win, by far) to lean on.

Oklahoma State [18-9 (5-8), RPI: 50, SOS: 35] Still without a road win, the Cowboys now need to win two on the road just to get to .500 in conference play. It's hard to recall a team (OK, other than Clemson) falling so precipitously from lock status to almost certainly out of the NCAAs at this point. There are wins to be had in the last three, including a very big home game against K-State on Tuesday, but this team is reeling. Can you tell the pressure to win is getting to them with the way the final possession played out at Texas Tech? There are some good nonconference performances to lean on, specifically beating Missouri State and Syracuse on neutral floors and Pitt in OK City, but if the Pokes don't right this very, very soon, that won't be enough.

Kansas State [20-9 (9-5), RPI: 56, SOS: 96] It pays to be in the Big 12 North. The nine league wins are Colorado (twice), Missouri (twice), Iowa State (twice), Baylor, Nebraska and (a good one against) Texas. That helps explain the middling computer profile. The win over USC is nice, but the nonconference leaves a lot to be desired. The game at OK State in Stillwater on Tuesday is huge, as it could KO the Cowboys and leave K-State with a home date against Oklahoma with which to work.