Bobcats hope to end road woes in Philadelphia

Basketball Betting Lines

03/10/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Robert Frost's poem "The Road Not Taken" easily coincides with how the Charlotte Bobcats have been playing this season. The road less traveled would be the one headed towards Charlotte, and that's made all the difference for the club's playoff hopes.

The Jekyll-and-Hyde Bobcats have been a different story on the road, and will be put to the test again tonight regardless if they're playing the struggling Philadelphia 76ers at the Wachovia Center.

The Bobcats, who are seventh in the Eastern Conference standings and coming off a perfect three-game residency, have dropped four of their last five road games and own an 8-23 record as the guest.

Charlotte just pushed its home ledger to 23-8 with Tuesday's 83-78 victory over Dwyane Wade and the Miami Heat, as Raymond Felton stepped up to post 15 points and a season-best 11 assists. Stephen Jackson added 17 points and Boris Diaw contributed 11 and eight rebounds for Charlotte, which matched the franchise mark of 23 home wins in a season set last in 2008-09.

"We've become a better team in the last week because we were pretty bad about two weeks ago," Bobcats head coach Larry Brown said. "I think the key is we are defending much better."

The Bobcats have never made the playoffs in the club's history.

Philadelphia's season can be compared to a Stephen King novel under first-year head coach Eddie Jordan, whose Princeton offense has seen better days than the Zelda character from Pet Sematary. The Sixers have lost six of their last seven games and suffered a 107-96 setback at Indiana last night.

Jrue Holiday had 21 points to lead the Sixers, who ended a five-game slide with Sunday's victory at Toronto. Samuel Dalembert totaled 16 points, 11 boards and four blocks in defeat.

"They were playing a small lineup," Jordan said of the Pacers. "We were concerned about matchups, but not overly concerned. We just wanted to play with the unit that gives us the most energy. We did not do enough to win."

According to multiple sources, Jordan is expected to be fired at season's end. He was named the 22nd head coach in club history last May.

The 76ers will also play host to the Cleveland Cavaliers on the short homestand and are 10-19 in the City of Brotherly Love. Philadelphia has won six of its past 13 home games after starting the season 4-12 at the Wachovia Center.

The 2009-10 season set between the Bobcats and 76ers is tied at a game apiece, while Charlotte has won nine of the last 15 meetings. Philadelphia, however, has won eight of the 10 all-time matchups as the host in this series.

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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.