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The Bobcats (32-31) are coming off a convincing 102-87 win at Philadelphia on Wednesday behind Gerald Wallace’s 28 points. Stephen Jackson chipped in 24 points and 10 rebounds as the Bobcats continue to climb up the Eastern Conference standings.

Entering Friday’s matchup with the Clippers (25-40), the Bobcats are in seventh place in the East and just two games behind fifth place Milwaukee (34-29).

Friday will be the second and final game of the season between the Bobcats and Clippers. The two teams played February 22 in Los Angeles, with the Clippers defeating the Bobcats, 98-94.

Charlotte held a lead until late in the fourth quarter when the Clippers’ Rasual Butler hit a game tying three-pointer with 2:41 left. The teams battled back and forth in the closing minutes, but Los Angeles went 9-of-12 from the free throw line to seal the win.

The Bobcats are 4-7 against the Clippers all-time, but have won four of the last five matchups.

7 p.m., Time Warner Cable Arena (Charlotte Observer)

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The 2010 ACC Men’s Basketball Tournament began on Thursday with Duke entering as the No. 1 seed. Gerald Henderson weighs in on the Blue Devils’ chances and talks about his recent play in the latest Rookie Diary fueled by Gatorade.

And that's why Gerald Wallace just might have saved the Charlotte Bobcats' season roughly a week ago. (Charlotte Observer)

"They've had phenomenal drafts and they're in a good situation financially. I don't think they're very far away," Brown said. "I know what kind of owner (they) have, I know the fans are as good as any. I look at their roster and I see the chance for improvement very quickly." (Charlotte Observer)

"They've had phenomenal drafts and they're in a good situation financially. I don't think they're very far away," Brown said. "I know what kind of owner (they) have, I know the fans are as good as any. I look at their roster and I see the chance for improvement very quickly." (Charlotte Observer)

Photo by NBAE / Getty Images

The Bobcats used a 62-point first half to build an 18-point lead at the intermission and coasted to a 102-87 win over the 76ers on Wednesday in Philadelphia. The Bobcats picked up road win number nine on the season and set a new franchise milestone by climbing back over the .500 mark at 32-31- the latest in a season the Bobcats have ever had a winning record.

“We got a big lead, and then in the third quarter they came back,” said Bobcats Head Coach Larry Brown. “We played great for about five minutes (after that) and then kind of hung on. I didn’t love our finish, but they had a lot to do with it… but all-in-all, on a back-to-back and how we’ve struggled on the road, this was a big win for us.”

Gerald Wallace and Stephen Jackson led the way with 28 points and 24 points, respectively. Wallace was nearly perfect shooting the ball, going 9-10 from the floor and 10-11 from the line in 38 minutes.

“This was a must-win for us,” said Wallace. “We’ve got some momentum going right now, and it’s the right time for that. We came out and had some bad losses here, so we wanted to jump on them right from the start, and I think we did a good job of that.”

After Philadelphia opened the game with an 8-2 run, the Bobcats responded with a 13-point run of their own and led by 14 at the end of the first quarter. They would never look back, taking a 27-point lead into the fourth quarter. Six Bobcats scored in double-figures tonight, including D.J. Augustin (10), Tyson Chandler (12) and Tyrus Thomas (10) who combined to score 32 of 34 bench points. But defense and free throw shooting were, once again, the difference for the Bobcats. The NBA’s second-best defense held the 76ers to just 42 percent shooting and 5 of 24 from 3-point range. At the line, the Bobcats made more free throws (31) than Philadelphia attempted (21).

“We’ve won four in a row,” said Brown. “We didn’t have a great first half defensively against Miami, but the second half was spectacular. We didn’t have a great first half against Golden State, but in the second half we defended much better. Against L.A., the whole game we were pretty darn good (defensively), and tonight for the most part we were pretty darn good. For the most part, that’s thanks to the things Gerald (Wallace) talked about – communicating on defense and getting aggressive defensively.”

Charlotte looks to extend its four-game winning streak on Friday against Baron Davis and the Los Angeles Clippers at Time Warner Cable Arena®. Tickets are available by phone, online at bobcats.com or at the Time Warner Cable Arena box office.

MIchael Thompson of bobcats.com contributed to this recap