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In the past five games heading into Friday’s slate with Indiana, the Bobcats looked like a team fighting for its playoff life.

They had won four of their last five and were coming off back-to-back wins over Washington that pulled them to within four-and-a-half games of Orlando for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference with six games remaining.

Getting into the postseason might have seemed like a bit of a stretch, but stranger things have been known to happen in the world of sports.

Charlotte’s playoff hopes were virtually eliminated Friday, as it couldn’t find a way to cool a hot-shooting Pacers squad late on its way to a 112-102 in front of 18,939 at Charlotte Bobcats Arena. The Bobcats (30-47) are now five games out of the No. 8 spot with five games remaining.

Indiana (33-42) moved to within one game of the Magic (34-41) with the win.

“At this point, we’re both fighting. We’re both around 30 wins,” Bobcats General Manager & Head Coach Bernie Bickerstaff said. “I thought both teams competed, and no one laid down. They just got the upper hand and started making shots.”

Charlotte entered the decisive fourth quarter trailing 81-77 and quickly found itself facing a 10-point deficit as Indiana scored the first six points of the frame.

Despite their best efforts to slice into the Pacers lead behind a steal and fast-break slam dunk from Gerald Wallace to bring the Bobcats to within 89-85 with 8:52 remaining, Indiana was unfazed because they simply could not miss to start the fourth.

Behind six points from veteran guard and North Carolina native Darrell Armstrong and five more each from Danny Granger and Shawne Williams, the Pacers connected on 9-10 field goals at the beginning of the final stanza to push the lead to 101-93 and kept Charlotte at bay the rest of the way.

“Everybody was hitting shots – Darrell Armstrong was hitting, Danny Granger was hitting and Jermaine (O’Neal) started hitting at the end,” said Raymond Felton. “Guys were hitting shots. Everybody. Their whole team. There’s nothing you can do about that.”

Wallace did his best to keep the Bobcats in the contest, finishing with a team-high 29 points and adding nine rebounds and five steals, but it wasn’t enough.

“When it came down to it, they couldn’t miss,” Wallace said. “They were making every shot they took in the fourth quarter. It seemed like we played good defense, but somehow they were able to get open to knock down the shots.”

Wallace was followed in double-digit scoring by Emeka Okafor and Walter Herrmann with 15 points apiece, and 13 more from Felton.

"You could tell there was a lot at stake for both teams. We fought hard, they just hit more shots."
-- Raymond Felton

Adam Morrison added nine points in 22 minutes but left the contest late in the third quarter with a left knee tendon sprain and did not return. He left the locker room without a limp after the game and is expected to be okay, with no MRI currently scheduled.

Charlotte got off to a slow start, falling behind 13-4 early in the first quarter while hitting just 2-10 shots from the field. But led by seven points from Wallace and five more off the bench from center Jake Voskuhl, the Bobcats clawed their way back into it and trailed 25-23 after one.

The teams swapped the lead 11 times in the second before Wallace’s trey from the top of the arc with 2.3 seconds remaining in the half sent Charlotte into the break with a 55-51 lead.

The Bobcats continued to build momentum from there, opening up their largest lead of the game 61-51 on a Wallace jumper with 11:11 remaining in the third. Charlotte continued to keep things under control over the next four minutes and held a 71-63 advantage before things started to unravel around the six-minute mark.

“We were at home and felt like we were in a game where we got off to a slow start and fought the whole first half to get back into it,” Wallace said. “We had a 10-point lead and we were in position to take control of the game.”

Instead, led by seven points from Granger, the Pacers outscored the Bobcats18-6 to close the quarter, giving Indiana an 81-77 lead and setting up its fourth-quarter outburst.

“We had a 10-point lead and we didn’t step on them when we had the opportunity,” Bickerstaff said. “We made some bad decisions on some of the shots that we took, and we let them get hot. We were there (defensively), but they just shot the ball well. That happens with teams. They got into a rhythm and it became contagious. Whoever put it up got hot.”

Granger finished with a game-high 32 points for the Pacers, followed by Armstrong (16), O’Neal (14), Troy Murphy (13), and Mike Dunleavy, Keith McLeod and Williams (11 each) in double-digit scoring.

The Bobcats now head out for a 6 p.m. matchup with the Heat on Easter Sunday in Miami. Make sure to catch all your Bobcats action on WMYT MyTV12 or tune in to Mix 106.1 FM as Charlotte goes for its 31st win.

NOTES: Gerald Wallace finished the game with 29 points on 10-18 shooting, to go with nine rebounds, five steals and two blocks. It was Wallace’s 57th double-figure scoring effort on the season and 27th 20-plus point scoring game... Walter Herrmann scored 15 points on 6-14 shooting. Eleven of those 15 points came in the second half, where he shot 4-7 from the floor... The Bobcats forced 14 turnovers, leading to 17 Charlotte points... The season series between these two teams ends with the Pacers holding a 2-1 edge. Overall, Indiana leads the series 7-3... The Bobcats led 55-51 at halftime but the Pacers came out in the third quarter and shot .647 (11-17) on their way to 30 points. In that same quarter, the Bobcats shot .360 (9-25) on their way to 22 points... The Pacers’ Danny Granger (3-3 from three-point) and Keith McLeod (3-3 from three-point) combined to shoot 6-6 from beyond the arc. Indiana finished the game shooting .636 (7-11) from beyond the arc.