Pacers, Bulls clash at Conseco Fieldhouse

Basketball Betting Lines

02/09/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - A Chicago Bulls squad that's struggled on the road for much of this season will try to turn around its historic lack of success at Indianapolis' Conseco Fieldhouse in tonight's Central Division clash with the Indiana Pacers.

Chicago is just 9-17 as the visitor thus far in 2009-10 and has dropped its last two tests away from home, although the club did string together five straight road wins from January 22-29. The Bulls have been worse when traveling to Indiana over the years, earning just three victories in its last 22 tries as the guest in this series.

Since Conseco Fieldhouse opened in 1999, Chicago has gone just 3-17 in road games against the Pacers, including defeats in both meetings between the teams held in Indianapolis last season.

The Bulls did deal Indiana a 104-95 setback in the Windy City back on December 29, though, and halted a three-game losing streak with Saturday's 95-91 home triumph over Miami.

"It was a big win," said forward Luol Deng, who led Chicago with 25 points. "Every time you have a losing streak you just want to put an end to it."

Chicago prevailed over the Heat by getting to the free throw line and hitting those shots. The Bulls had a season-high 35 attempts from the charity stripe and converted 28 of them.

Deng went 9-of-11 from the foul line and Derrick Rose, who scored 24 points in the win, made 6-of-8 free-throw shots.

John Salmons chipped in 15 points for Chicago and Brad Miller notched 13 points, eight rebounds and five steals to help off offset the absence of fellow bigs Joakim Noah and Tyrus Thomas. Noah is expected to remain sidelined until after the All-Star break with plantar fasciitis in his foot, while Thomas was suspended by the Bulls for Saturday's contest for conduct detrimental to the team.

Thomas, averaging 8.5 points and 6.2 rebounds in a reserve role this season, is expected to play tonight.

Indiana had posted back-to-back home wins over Toronto and Detroit to begin February, but couldn't keep up the momentum in Saturday's trip to rival Milwaukee. The Pacers dropped a 93-81 decision to the Bucks after being outrebounded by a 43-33 margin and committing 19 turnovers that led to 25 points by their opponent.

"They hurt us on the boards," remarked Pacers center Roy Hibbert. "That has to be my responsibility to keep the big guys off the offensive glass."

Hibbert collected just four rebounds in addition to scoring 10 points, while leading scorer Danny Granger managed 14 points -- eight under his season average -- on 5-of-14 shooting. T.J. Ford topped the Pacers with 20 points off the bench.

Ford saw the majority of minutes at point guard with regular starter Earl Watson missing a second straight game due to a personal matter. The well- traveled veteran will likely be back in the lineup for this evening's matchup, however.

Indiana has also played its last two tilts without reserve guard Luther Head, who remains day-to-day with a viral infection.

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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.