Pacers battle Grizzlies on Beale Street

Basketball Betting Lines

02/10/2012 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The much-improved Indiana Pacers hope to salvage the back- end of a brief two-game road trip tonight when they square off with the Memphis Grizzlies on Beale Street.

Indiana is coming off a 97-98 loss in Atlanta on Wednesday. Danny Granger scored 21 points in that one to lead the Pacers, who had won five of six coming in.

David West and Tyler Hansbrough added 15 points apiece while Roy Hibbert, who was named to his first All-Star team on Thursday, finished with 10 and 13 rebounds for the Pacers, who have dropped nine straight in the Peach State.

"Give Atlanta a lot of credit," said Pacers coach Frank Vogel. "They came out, having lost three in a row, with tremendous edge and took the fight to us. We fought like dogs in the second half to come back and compete and make it a game, but they were too much."

Memphis climbed back to the .500 mark on Wednesday and improved to 1-1 on a five-game residency with an 85-80 triumph over a Kevin Love-less Minnesota team.

Rudy Gay had 19 points, nine rebounds and three steals against the Timberwolves while Quincy Pondexter, starting in place of the injured Tony Allen, added a career-high 17 points and six boards for the Grizzlies, who snapped a three-game skid. Dante Cunningham and Marc Gasol each had 12 points.

"I just tried to continue being aggressive," Pondexter said. "After the last few games, I was real disappointed. I stayed aggressive and my teammates did a great job of finding me. You just have to be active on the floor, getting rebounds and doing a lot of the little things that help you be real productive in these types of games."

Allen, who is struggling with hip and knee injuries, remains doubtful for tonight's contest as Memphis tries to improve on an 8-4 mark at FedEx Forum.

The Pacers, who have not lost back-to-back games this season, have dropped four straight overall to the Grizz and three consecutive contests in the Volunteer State.

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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.