Charlotte Bobcats at Indiana Pacers
Gerald Wallace was Charlotte’s lone All-Star this season but if you ask anyone who watches they’ll tell you the team’s real MVP is Stephen Jackson.
The shooting guard did everything for Charlotte but hand out the Gatorade during his club’s win over the Magic on Sunday. Jackson finished with 28 points, six rebounds and six assists, and didn’t turn the ball over once.
The Bobcats needed an offensive boost with Wallace missing due to injury.
“Stephen made huge plays throughout,” Bobcats head coach Larry Brown told the Charlotte Observer, “and without Gerald, I don’t know that we could have played any better.”
The win was the club’s sixth straight and its fifth cover over the same stretch. The hot spell can be attributed to a recommitment to the defensive end. Charlotte is allowing just 87.5 points per game during the win streak and has played under the total in seven of its last nine games.
Pick: Under
Minnesota Timberwolves at Phoenix Suns
The Timberwolves are in full-out tank mode. Want to know why? Forget that they’ve lost 15 of their last 16 games; Minnesota is 4-10 against the spread in its last 14 games and has lost by double digits in six of its last eight contests.
“Right now, our guys feel when things go bad, it’s ‘Here we go again,’“ T-Wolves coach Kurt Rambis told the Minneapolis Star Tribune following his team’s latest loss. “We don’t have the leadership out on the floor to get the guys rallied.”
General manager David Kahn is hoping Rambis can squeeze in some time to scout the NCAA Tournament. That doesn’t exactly scream of a team focused on the Suns.
Phoenix backers haven’t cashed the last few times the Suns played on their home court, but getting Leandro Barbosa back should spark Alvin Gentry’s group.
Pick: Suns