Roy Hibbert filled the stat sheet with 13 points, 14 rebounds and six assists, as Indiana topped Charlotte, 100-92, at Conseco Fieldhouse.
Danny Granger had 18 points for the Pacers, who have won four in a row and nine of their last 12 at home over the Bobcats. Brandon Rush made half of his three-point attempts on the way to a 16-point night, and Mike Dunleavy added 15 for Indiana.
Josh McRoberts tallied 11 points and Darren Collison chipped in 10 with seven assists, as the Pacers bounced back from a two-point loss at Milwaukee on Wednesday.
"This was an ugly game and we were happy to get out of here with a win tonight,"
Hibbert said. "We played good defense, which can create offense. I played defense and impacted the ball, which resulted in points also. Tomorrow's my birthday and I'm going to Atlanta to get a win for us."
The Pacers essentially won the game from beyond the arc, going 13-of-31, compared to Charlotte's 3-of-17 performance.
Gerald Wallace led the way with 26 points and 13 boards for the Bobcats, who dropped their sixth in a row on the road.
Granger's layup widened Indiana's lead to 84-71 with under nine minutes left, but a Shaun Livingston steal and jam had the visitors within 87-83 with 4:42 remaining.
Indiana scored the ensuing six points, helped by a three-ball from Dunleavy and topped off by Collison's layup inside three minutes. Charlotte didn't threaten the rest of the way.
Stephen Jackson had 12 of Charlotte's 22 points in the opening quarter, but the Pacers used a big push at the end of the period to grab an eight-point advantage. Nazr Mohammed's layup gave the Bobcats a 22-19 edge with 3:59 remaining, but Rush's three-ball started an 11-0 run to cap the stanza. James Posey and Rush hit back-to-back three-balls in the final two minutes of the quarter.
Although the Bobcats never led after the first quarter, they did trim the margin to one on two occasions in the second, the last being 51-50 following a Mohammed layup with 1:17 left. Rush then hit two straight three-point shots to close the half with the Pacers up, 57-50.
Wallace's tip-in had Charlotte within 66-64 with 6 1/2 minutes to go in the third quarter, but Dunleavy and McRoberts canned three-pointers to stem the tide. A layup from Solomon Jones in the final minute expanded the cushion to 79-69 going to the fourth.
"I got cold in the second half. I couldn't hit a shot,"
Jackson said. "But we stayed in the game for the most part. The better team made plays."
Game Notes
Jackson ended with 15 points, eight assists and seven turnovers...Mohammed had 13 points and Kwame Brown notched 12 rebounds for Charlotte...Bobcats coach Larry Brown, who coached the Pacers from 1993-97, leads all active coaches with 1,326 wins in his NBA/ABA career. He is only 10 wins shy of passing Don Nelson for the most all-time (1,335).
