CHARLOTTE BOBCATS @ INDIANA PACERS
Basketball : North America : NBA
Sunday, February 19th, 2012, 6:00PM US
(11:00PM GMT)

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TEAM STATS

CHARLOTTE - Total 4-26 :: Home 2-11 :: Road 2-15 :: Streak - W1
INDIANA ---- Total 18-12 :: Home 8-4 :: Road 10-8 :: Streak W1

PREVIEW

Charlotte are on the road here and priced as huge underdogs of 11 points. Looking at their 4-26 record, that would look fair, seeing as that is the worst record in this shortened NBA season. Charlotte are however off a 7 point win in Toronto, which they achieved on Friday, 98-91, to end a franchise worst 16 game losing streak.

Yes they deserve to be massive underdogs when travelling, but do their opponents, the Indiana Pacers, deserve to be favoured to win by 12 points? I think not. Look at the Pacers recent record. Indiana have lost their last 7 home games. They have won just 1 of their last 5 overall and that was against New Jersey, a poor team. When priced as favourites, Indiana have burned their backers by failing to cover in 8 straight games.

When you look at the overall stats of Charlotte and their stats away from home, there is hardly a difference. They score 86.9 overall and 86.4 away from home, so there is no slump there. They give up 101.4 away while their overall average is 100.5 so this team is not at a particular disadvantage when travelling.

Indiana are at home but they don't particularly dominate there. At home they are winning 95.6-92.1 whereas their overall record sees them winning by an average score of 94.2-92.8 which means even if you take the better record they are still beating their opponents only by about 25% of the number they are being asked to cover tonight!

BETTING VERDICT

I'm going to take the underdog in this one. I realise just how poor Charlotte have been, and they may well get tonked again tonight, but Indiana have no reason to cover this huge number, something they have only done once in the last 18 games.

The Pick :

Charlotte +11

HANDICAP BETTING :

Take the Charlotte Bobcats +11 @ 1.95 (Pinnacle)