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Pacers tasked with ending slide at Houston

Jan 19, 2015 - 3:01 PM (SportsNetwork.com) - The Indiana Pacers will try to put the clamps on a four- game losing streak, but it won't be easy Monday evening as they travel to the Toyota Center to face the Houston Rockets.

The Pacers haven't won since Jan. 9 and have dropped three straight as the visitor. Monday represents game two of a five-game trip through the south with stops in Atlanta, Miami and Orlando still on the docket.

Indiana started the sojourn with an 80-71 overtime loss to the Charlotte Hornets on Saturday.

The game was tied 68-68 following regulation, but the Hornets scored the first 10 points of the extra session to pull away. Indiana didn't score in the extra session until C.J. Watson hit a trey with 29.7 ticks left.

Roy Hibbert posted 12 points and 14 boards, while David West provided 19 points and eight rebounds for the Pacers. Donald Sloan was the only other Indiana player in double figures with 13 off the bench.

"We're just trying to figure things out," West said. "We just can't find that balance where everybody's clicking."

Indiana was 35.7 percent (30-of-84) from the field and just 2-of-21 from long distance. It also turned the ball over 20 times.

The Rockets have lost two of their last three, highlighted by a 131-106 drubbing at the hands of the Golden State Warriors on Saturday. The 131 points allowed was a season-high for the Rockets and the 25-point setback was the largest at home this season.

Dwight Howard compiled 23 points and 10 rebounds for Houston, but James Harden was held to 12 points on 4-of-15 shooting.

"We just struggled tonight," Harden said. "We just didn't have energy."

Donatas Motiejunas and Josh Smith each had 14, while Patrick Beverley managed 11.

The Warriors grabbed a 64-59 halftime lead by finishing the second quarter on a flourish, with a Steph Curry 3-pointer and Klay Thompson's reverse layup with 20.3 seconds on the clock highlighting a 9-0 period-ending run.

That momentum carried over into the third quarter, during which Golden State began to pull away via a 7-0 surge that Thompson began with a triple and ended on a transition layup which followed Curry's successful runner. The flurry staked the Warriors to an 80-68 advantage near the midway mark of the period.

The Warriors later ended the frame with 12 unanswered points, eight of which came from David Lee, to enter the fourth owning a commanding 102-80 lead.

The Rockets defeated the Pacers on March 7 to end a four-game series losing streak. The two teams have split the previous eight meetings at the Toyota Center.