Charlotte Bobcats coach Larry Brown had no problem finding the positives in an overtime loss to one of the Eastern Conference's best teams. He just hopes to finish on the other end of their next game.

The Bobcats look to build on an impressive showing in their first game since the All-Star break as they try to deal the Indiana Pacers their 10th straight road defeat Wednesday night.

Charlotte (21-32) followed a five-game losing streak with back-to-back victories before the break, and didn't seem to lose any momentum in its return to the court on Tuesday.

The Bobcats outscored Southeast Division-leading Orlando 29-18 in the second quarter and led for most of the game before giving up a game-tying 3-pointer with eight seconds remaining. They went on to lose 107-102, falling to 5-2 in overtime games.

Despite being disappointed, Brown saw encouraging signs.

"I'm not real happy tonight," he said. "...But certainly when you go on the road and play a quality team like that, that's really well coached and you've got a player like Dwight (Howard) who's having an unbelievable game and you still have opportunities to win, I'm proud of that."

Though Charlotte allowed Howard to score a career-high 45, a large discrepancy from the free-throw line didn't help its cause either. The Bobcats were 8-for-17 from the line, while the Magic were 28-for-37.

"We had nine more field goals. We outrebounded them. We got more points on turnovers than they did. We shot a higher percentage," Brown said. "Bottom line they got to the free throw line. ... When you get beat that badly from the free throw line, it's hard to overcome that."

The Bobcats hope to end up with a different result against a Pacers team that hasn't won on the road in six weeks.

Indiana (22-33) has dropped nine straight away from home since Jan. 7, its longest road skid since it lost 11 in a row from Feb. 23-March 30, 2007. The Pacers snapped that with a 112-102 win in Charlotte, where they're 3-4 all-time.

Though they've struggled away from home lately, the Pacers opened the second half of the season with an impressive win at Conseco Fieldhouse.

They shot 49.4 percent and held Philadelphia to 38.5 percent in a 100-91 victory Tuesday, snapping the four-game winning streak the 76ers took into the break.

Danny Granger led the Pacers with 20 points and 10 rebounds, and added four assists and four blocked shots. He was more than five points under his average, but five other Indiana players reached double figures.

"That's very important," Granger said. "When we can score level across the board and I don't have to score 30 points, that's the characteristic of a good team."

The Pacers and Bobcats split their first two meetings, both in Indianapolis. Bobcats point guard Raymond Felton matched his career high with 31 points, including 11 in the fourth quarter and overtime, in Charlotte's 115-108 win Nov. 28.

Granger scored eight of his 27 points in the fourth quarter of Indiana's 98-93 victory Jan. 25.