The rolling Indiana Pacers are now picking up bandwagon followers, including including the perennially-pessimistic Indy Star columnist Bob Kravitz (though he does take the time to pepper in a few Colts references). With last week’s lone loss coming under an abbreviated squad against the number one team in the NBA, the Pacers appear to be more of a playoff contender than a beneficiary of a cake-walk early schedule (sixth easiest through 12 games).

The next two weeks will be very revealing as to the team’s potential. The season’s only western road trip features some winnable games before the final stop in Los Angeles than a homecoming to face the surprisingly strong Orlando Magic, a team enjoying the calm before the ensuing trade deadline storm. Six of the next seven are on the road, however, where the Pacers have been a model of inconsistency.

Roy Hibbert’s Contract Year

The big man is earning himself a lot of money. With his rookie contract expiring at the end of this season, Hibbert could garner a lot of interest from around the league. It seems likely that he would want to extend his stay in Indiana, and Larry Bird will probably be willing to do what it takes for that to happen.

Hibbert is now a double-double machine and defensive menace anchoring the league’s fourth-best defense. Though his scoring hasn’t been phenomenal, his shooting percentage and points per game have improved from last season. In a match-up against a team without an effective post-defense, Hibbert could be a first or second-round nightmare in the playoffs.

Area 55 could look a lot bigger next year.

Hicks vs. Geriatrics

In my last column, I discussed the growing (and mainly fabricated on my part) beef between the Boston Celtics and Pacers after Ray Allen said that West’s “ego kicked in” and he “wanted the dollars” when deciding to sign with Indiana. That was followed up by somewhat insulting piece lauding the Boston tradition and lambasting a man that didn’t want to be a part of it.

In other news, the Pacers have man-handled the Celtics twice in eight days. With that, I would like to end each column by tracking each team through the season. You know, just to help my ego kick in. What else is there to do in these cornfields?

As of January 16:

Pacers 9-3 (4th in East)
Boston 4-8 (9th in East)

If the 2012 playoffs* started today, the first round match-up would be …

#4 Pacers vs. #5 Hawks

*Boston not present

Of course, these are my thoughts following back-to-back wins at Boston and against the not-yet-tragic Charlotte Bobcats. Whereas last Thurdsay, I was trying to calculate how many wins it would take to notch the eight seed again this season in the East. Such is life in this shortened, compacted NBA season in which the Pacers may be a much more even keel squad than most teams based on their depth and non-reliance on one individual player.

Price Check

My displeasure with Lance Stephenson as a member of the rotation has been documented on this site. My affinity for AJ Price should also be known. Still, early performances should make this preference an easy decision. Though the numbers don’t overwhelmingly tilt in Price’s direction, simple observation does.

With Price, the offense seems comfortable and directed. He’s no Mark Jackson, and never will be. He is, however, a consummate teammate (watch him on the bench during games) and a calming force in the high-energy second unit, which has been the team’s strength in recent wins.

Price was productive in last spring’s playoff series against the Bulls, both in his back-up role and when filling in for an injured Darren Collison in game two with the starters. He’s a highly competent backup, a perfect set-up man at the beginning of the second quarter and end of the third.

Stephenson’s potential, on the other hand, is undeniable. He’s unbelievably quick and often flashy. He could, possibly, someday, maybe, be a solid NBA starter that teams have to gameplan for.

But here’s the thing: He’s not right now.

The offense stalls with him in the game. George Hill has to take on much more of the ball-handling to keep things going. Oddly, however, Frank Vogel has already said that Stephenson will return to his role as Darren Collison’s backup. I wonder how much management is pulling strings to keep Stephenson in the game?

Frank’s quotes aren’t exactly a ringing endorsement of Stephenson. He brings up the same points I just did.

“[I’m] looking forward to him taking advantage of his skills when he starts to come around.”

On the other hand, he likes what he has seen out of Price.

“The offense flows when he’s in the game. The ball moves, he’s a great passer, a great leader of the team.”

For a team needing all the wins it can get now for a potential third seed in the playoffs, this seems pretty cut and dry to me. Take certainty now over future promise.

Go West, Young Man

Recently, David West has taken quite a bit of flak for his decision to sign with the Pacers rather than the Boston Celtics. Reports are that the two deals were pretty similar. This led to a quote from Celtics guard Ray Allen who essentially called West (and I’m summarizing) a money-grubbing egotistical jerk that doesn’t care about winning or a championship.

Admittedly, my avulsion for Boston’s reaction to this may be tainted by years of disdain for that city ever since Willie McGinest faked an injury on a goal-line stand against the Colts in 2004.

Another article written by a Boston-based reporter was published the day of the Pacers/Celtics game. The author essentially paints West as a man not driven by ego, but afraid of the spotlight in Boston and tradition of the Celtics. It goes so far as to print a quote from West about him not being a nightlife, party guy. The implication is that West wants to lead a ho-hum life in the “cornfields” of Indiana on an average team rather than be subjected to the scrutiny of the league’s most storied franchise.

I would like to add three sidenotes to the Pacers-Celtics debate. First of all, David West is a family man with a wife and two children. No wonder he’s not out clubbing. Second, the Celtics are not a championship contender. The team shipped out Kendrick Perkins last year and shopped around its franchise point guard this season, essentially destroying their team chemistry. The average age of Boston’s “Big Three” is 35. And lastly, the Pacers might actually be the better team. After all, they won the game, in pretty dominating fashion in Boston even with a sub-par game from West.

Saddled with high expectations after a subtly superb offseason and following a dominating win in the season opener, the Pacers defeated a not-as-awful-as-we-thought Toronto Raptor squad in what was the home opener for Canada’s only team.

The beginning of the game looked exactly as we expected in the beginning of the season after an extended lockout and abbreviated training camp. The team were throwing the ball everywhere, except in the basket. At the end of the first quarter, Toronto had just eleven points. Granted, part of that could be the pesky prowess of the Pacers’ rangy defenders. But still. Eleven!

To be fair, the rustiest part of the post-lockout NBA may be the officiating, but more on that later. The officiating has been awful thus far. Great examples in this game included obvious basket interference, an airball free throw that didn’t stop play and a foul called on Lou Amundson when a Raptors player leaned right into him.

Regardless, for the second straight game in as many attempts, the Pacers shot under 40% but came out on top. Tha seems to be a sign of better things to come (and the team is already on pace to go 66-0).

Speaking of things to come, Paul George appears to be dramatically improved from his rookie season. It’s prudent to avoid any outlandish predictions, especially since the opponents combined for just 52 wins last season (a sum less than that compiled by seven individual teams). Thus far, however, he appears confident and improved, a legitimate force that teams will need to game plan for defensively.

George still has a lot of growing up to do as a starter in the NBA. As a glaring example, he shot — and missed — a three-pointer with the shot clock turned off at the end of the third quarter when the Pacers could have held for the last shot with a 10-point lead. That absent-mindedness led to a Toronto basket on the other end. Still, he could really be something — and that could happen relatively soon.

Last year, George became a lockdown defender whose offensive presence was mainly a liability except in transition. Now, his perimeter shooting has become a legitimate threat (he hit 4 treys tonight), which will only help spread the floor and open up the interior for Roy Hibbert, David West and Tyler Hansbrough.

Though George may have been the flashiest, Darren Collison was quietly magnificent. As the team still adjusts to a revamped system with new pieces, Collison has kept the offense serviceable despite poor shooting. George Hill will certainly play better and become more comfortable, but for now, the battle for the starting point guard spot isn’t even close. Case and point: The Pacers were +16 with Collison in the game, -8 with Hill.

Early excitement for this season centers around the Pacers extreme depth, in which any of seven players (supposedly) could lead the team in scoring on any given night. But in the second game of this shortened season, it became patently obvious that Danny Granger still runs the show.

With the once-comfortable lead dwindling down to five, Granger nailed a deep three to push the lead back to arm’s reach with just over two minutes left in the contest. A minute later, now up just two, he hit another triple to help ice the game. before West did so for good with a jumper of his own.

Danny Granger: Still the leader; still the man; at least for now.

Other Thoughts

• In a game played north of the border, nothing is more entertaining than yelling “He shot that from (insert obscure Canadian location here)!” Based on Paul George’s showing from long range, I got to use Ottawa, Prince Edward Island, Calgary, Vancouver and Prince Albert (yes, it’s a real city there).

• A.J. Price is the Dominic Rhodes of the Pacers. He spends all game on the bench getting hype out of his mind and bounces around to congratulate his teammates during timeouts. At some point this season, Collison will get in foul trouble, and Lance Stephenson will be serving a suspension for setting off firecrackers in Vogel’s office (or whatever teenage delinquents do these days). Then, we’ll actually get to see Price play. Sources say he wasn’t half-bad in the Pacers playoff series last season.

• Officiating has been awful thus far. Great examples in this game included obvious basket interference, an airball free throw that didn’t stop play and a foul called on Lou Amundson when a Raptors player leaned right into him.

• Some people like Amundson’s potential, but if you ask me, Jeff Foster cannot get healthy fast enough.

Game 4 had to have felt exactly like reliving Game 1 to the Indiana Pacers. Improbably leading the entire game, some of it by double-digits, the Indiana lead began to diminish rapidly over the final three minutes of the game: a 10-point cushion turned into a one-possession game in a hurry. All the while, the red sea of fans was going bananas, attempting to spur its team to a thrilling comeback win.

The problem is that Game 4 took place at Conseco Fieldhouse. In a series in which the Pacers dropped the first two contests despite leading for almost 60 minutes, the blue and gold returned to Indy for what they thought would be home-court advantage. It turned out to be a home invasion.

Thursday’s crowd was split 50-50 with the Pacer faithful out-performing their red counterparts. Returning from perhaps the most encouraging losses in franchise history, fans showed up rowdy and ready for Game 3. Post-game quotes from Frank Vogel and Danny Granger as well as the opinion of one ESPN Chicago columnist who said the Bulls playing Indiana “had to feel like swimming with their clothes on” ran across the bigscreen.

Make no mistakes about the fact that Chicago fans were definitely in attendance at Thursday’s Game Three in extraordinarily high numbers. At times, the atmosphere resembled that of a high school game: each side alternated cheers and jeers for its preferred group. But it was a neutral environment at worst where the Pacer players at least got to enjoy the confines of a familiar locker room and well-known path to work.

Game 4, however, was nothing short of embarrassing for anyone who cares about Indiana basketball. What was reported as maybe a 50-50 crowd by TNT (or so I heard, since I actually bought tickets to the game and therefore did not watch it on TV) was more like 70-30. And a meek 30% at that.

Pacers officials would have been better off not allowing the pre-game introductions to take place. Chicago fans nearly took the roof off as the announcer said the names of their starters, then rained down boos on the Pacers’ five. The crowd was silent for most of the game, during which the Pacers held a double-figure lead, then nearly spurred the road team to a massive comeback.

Such an overwhelming migration of fans from Chicago has created quite a bit of media attention. The search for explanations has yielded a few reasonable answers. Comparable tickets were often ten times more expensive in the United Center as in Conseco Fieldhouse. The Bulls had a better season. Many IU and Purdue students are from the Chicago area. And so on. And so forth.

One Pacers worker, tossing out t-shirts at the end of the first quarter, shared how disgusted he was at the turnout to me, mainly because the lovely lady who escorted me to the game and I were the only Pacers fans in the section. “I don’t see how anyone can say this isn’t a fair-weather city,” he said.

Indy Star columnist extraordinaire Bob Kravitz essentially excused the turnout, writing that the Pacers can’t “field a lousy and thoroughly irrelevant team for four-plus years, then have a decent two months and expect the entire city to reach for its wallets.”

Who’s right? Well, both to an extent.

Kravitz is correct in that the Pacers, after a season that saw a coaching change and ended eight games under .500, can’t expect the kind of fan support that a team with the league’s best record (and six previous championships) enjoys. But at the same time, tickets were available the week of the games for $13 apiece. It isn’t exactly a second mortgage.

The truth is that Indianapolis, unlike Chicago or New York, is a fair-weather sports city. Kravitz using the Indianapolis Colts 1999 playoff game against the Tennessee Titans is a perfect illustration. That year, the Colts finished 13-3, but Tennessee fans filled the RCA Dome in large numbers (although not as bad of a ratio as this series’ Game 4).

Some may say that Indianapolis did not have a deep connection yet to the Colts with the team only having been in town since 1984 and having yet to experience any real success at that point. And what a fine justification that is if we ignore the fact that Tennessee had only had a football franchise for three years in 1999 with the previous two being 8-8 seasons.

The truth is that Indianapolis is a fair-weather sports city. And it was humiliatingly on display to a national audience in Game 4.

(Footage of the Pacers valiant, fourth quarter “comeback.” via Graydon Gordian)

The Pacers lost in New Orleans badly (108-96) in a contest where the final score was not very indicative of the whole game. The end result was pretty apparent toward the beginning of the third quarter as the Hornets padded a lead north of 20 points. Both teams had their starters out by the start of the fourth, and there was even an alleged James Posey sighting. A flurry of outside shots got the Pacers much closer in the waning minutes, but the game was never in doubt.

We could go over the stats, but it’s not really necessary. Chris Paul was excellent and New Orleans’ starters shot 32-for-55 (58.2%) while nothing really stood out for Indy aside from decent play by AJ Price and Paul George’s 1-for-5 shooting, 3-point performance. This was his the 12th time in his 15 starts that he failed to score in double-digits and the 9th time in this stretch he has failed to even put up 7 points. Meanwhile, Mike Dunleavy dropped 15 points on 7 shots, in fewer minutes than George played, largely because he got to the line 6 times in just his 3rd game back from sitting out for five weeks with a busted thumb. Paul George has only attempted 6 free throws once in a game since February 12.

Pointless numbers aside, the outcome should not have been too surprising.

The Hornets, with a current record of 44-33, will ultimately wind up as either the 6th, 7th or 8th playoff seed in the vastly superior Western Conference; the Pacers, with a 35-43 record, are destined for the 8th seed in the East (which comes with a I-65 playoff date and a two games in a half-red Conseco Fieldhouse in a series against the Bulls).

Yes, I wrote it.

The Pacers are headed to the playoffs. Tim Donahue may not have been ready to call it after the team’s nail-biter against Milwaukee last Friday, but I’m ready to dive across Charlotte’s limp carcass like a UFC referee just 48 hours later.

Perhaps the assertion that Charlotte has no interest in making the playoffs and receiving a first-round smackdown is true. The Bobcats, just two games back in the standings, lost 97-91 at home to lowly Washington in what was just the Wizards’ third road win in 38 tries. Charlotte’s leading scorer, the infamous Stephen Jackson, did not play due to a sore hamstring, and the team seems to be in no hurry to bring him back. This does not seem like a club very intent on winning.

It may seem out of place to be so upbeat about the season after the Pacers were on the receiving end of such a solid beating. Sure, there were some really disconcerting things to see, especially confirmation of an earlier assertion that the starting line-up just doesn’t play very well together.

But if the team’s preseason goal was to make the playoffs, it looks good now.

Milwaukee is too far back, and Charlotte is seemingly holding up its white flag. Before play started Sunday, Hollinger listed Indiana’s chances at appearing in the playoffs as 94.2% (with Charlotte at 5.7% and Milwaukee at a thread-like 0.1%). Essentially, there is no one left to challenge the Pacers for the final playoff spot; it’s just a matter of cleaning up with a couple of wins in the final four contests against teams already locked into playoff positioning.

The champagne is on ice.

Stay tuned.

Other deep thoughts:

• Looking for a time-killer at work this week? Play ESPN’s playoff predictor and try to get the Pacers into the Finals. Odds are between 0.2% and 0.3%. Good luck!

• I would pay any price for a Charlotte Hornets Starter jacket.

It wasn’t the fact that I was in Detroit during Spring Break, the free throw shooting of my favored team or even the final result that upset me. The problem was the atmosphere of the game.

In a city far removed from its team’s latest championship, the Detroit crowd was lively and responsive. The Pistons played a good game — certainly helped by their opponent’s 7-of-19 performance from the free throw line — and the crowd fed them energy.

Why does it matter that Detroit had a good crowd on a Saturday night home game in March? Great question. I’m glad that you asked.

The real problem is that it was a more energetic game than any of the dozen that I have been to in Indianapolis all year. This came in the building of a team that is effectively out of the playoff race and has very few, if any, long term answers.

As the regular season draws to a close, and the postseason vaguely threatens to disappear entirely, it is not unreasonable to take a quick glance to the Pacers’ future.

Mike Dunleavy ($10.5 million), T.J. Ford ($8.5 million) and Jamaal Tinsley ($5.5 million) all have contributed about equal amounts since the switch to Frank Vogel, and all will be off the Pacers’ cap next year. This gives the team a considerable amount of wiggle room to sign new free agents to complement the assumed existing core of Darren Collison, Danny Granger, Roy Hibbert, Tyler Hansbrough and Paul George.

In a rapidly changing NBA, the question becomes: what will bring the players to Indiana?

We’ve seen from the recent migrations of LeBron James, Chris Bosh and Carmelo Anthony that money isn’t enough in every circumstance. Oftentimes it comes down to the existing players on the roster (also known as the “Miami Cheat” or “LeBron White Flag”) or location (also known as “Carmelo Takes Denver Hostage”). Unfortunately, the Pacers really don’t have either advantage on their side.

Don’t get me wrong: I’ve lived in Indiana my entire life, and with the exception of a few months-long excursions to perfect my Spanish, I don’t expect to leave anytime soon. But I’m not an NBA free agent, the majority of whom aren’t from the Midwest.

So if money isn’t enough to bring a big-time free agent to Indianapolis, what’s getting him here?

See, the problem in Indiana may be the weather: the cold-weather tendencies of the winter and the fair-weather tendencies of the fans. The Colts even had some trouble selling out this year’s home playoff game initially, and the Pacers can’t get a full house without help from either LeBron or fans from Chicago.

If I’m an NBA player, I’ve noticed this in my past trips to Indiana over the years. I’m not entirely sure that I want to spend the next three to five years of my career playing in front of a Conseco Fieldhouse half-full of lethargic supporters. I don’t know what the small market of Indianapolis, a city where the bars close at 2:00 and the winter lasts a full three months, has to offer me other than a paycheck. I’m going to think twice about playing almost 50 games a year over six months in an arena in the self-proclaimed capital of basketball where the fans can’t match the energy level of a destitute team in a city that just set a national record for population decrease.

If you’re reading this thinking that sounds ridiculously immature and shortsighted, you may not completely understand the mind of a millionaire athletic phenomenon in his 20s.

On November 19, 2004, Ron Artest and Stephen Jackson ran into the stands at the Palace of Auburn Hills; the Pacers have never been relevant since. As I sat less than a hundred feet from that very spot six years and change later listening to an invigorated Detroit crowd celebrate a fundamentally meaningless victory, I worried about how my team could ever return to what it once was if the fans just don’t really care.

Playing against a banged-up team, the Pacers benefited from solid bench play and great showings from point guards Darren Collison (18 points on 8-of-9 shooting) and AJ Price (15 points in 20 minutes).

It was a night that both teams needed a win for different reasons. The Pacers, trying to hold off quickly closing Charlotte, began just one game ahead of the field for the 8th and final playoff spot. Boston needed help to catch Chicago for home-court advantage throughout the playoffs.

The game was a Jekyll-and-Hyde night that encapsulated a Jekyll-and-Hyde season thus far.

Predictably enough, the Pacers got off to their typical slow start. With five minutes remaining in the first quarter, Indiana trailed 22-12 due mainly to an inability to control Celtics star Rajon Rondo. Rondo was doing anything and everything he wanted to such a degree that, at the time, it seemed as though Collison would be incapable of redeeming himself for the poor defense he was playing.

With Boston shooting lights out in the opening period, Roy Hibbert kept Indiana within striking distance. Throw in a Price buzzer-beater as the quarter expired and the lead was cut to a manageable six at 33-27.

Enter the Bench Brigade.

Led by Price, Dahntay Jones, and the sharp-shooting Brandon Rush, the second string turned the 6-point deficit to a 5-point surplus in just 5 minutes. The starters capitalized off this energy. By halftime, Indiana had shot 60% and gotten 19 points from Roy Hibbert, who simply out-classed whoever Doc Rivers threw at the big fella (including Nenad Krstic, Big Baby Davis and even Jeff Green). The good guys led by 8.

The third quarter was the opposite story. Teams began trading baskets to start the half, the kind of back-and-forth against a superior team that makes conditioned Pacers fans ask “How long can this last?”

As it turns out, not very long. A 16-6 Boston run put the Celtics up by 2 midway through the period. But the Pacers weathered the storm.

Needing an impetus at the beginning of the final quarter, the Pacers responded to a Boston drought by going on a 7-0 run to grab a 3-point lead. Sloppy play and turnovers (I consider a jump shot by Josh McRoberts to be a turnover and am currently drafting up a proposal to the commissioner on the subject) prohibited the Pacers from stretching that lead any further. (I joke, but despite what the box score may tell you, McRoberts played very well, making several nice passes that led to buckets in the second half.)

The most surprising aspect of the game came with the Pacers new-found lead dwindling. With his team down one, Ray Allen went to the line for an automatic pair.

Then Allen missed his first foul shot since the Eisenhower administration, Indiana notched three quick buckets in under a minute, and the usually reliable Kevin Garnett shot off on a couple more free throws. Collison was at the center of the Pacers attack, hitting four big buckets late including a pull-up jumper, a steal/dunk alone in transition and a driving layup at the rim (on which he might have also gotten fouled).

Another big hoop by Hibbert, who had 26 on the night on 12-for-17 shooting, put the Pacers up 8. Whenever Indiana opened the door up for a potential Celtic comeback in the final 4 minutes, Boston was uncharacteristically quick to give the ball back.

On a night when they really needed a win — particularly with the Bobcats winning a thriller over the Bucks — the Pacers got it. With 9 games left and a 1-game cushion for the last playoff spot, nothing else matters.

Other thoughts:

• Can we stop calling Pierce, Garnett and Allen The Big Three, please? None of them are currently the best player on their own team, and none of them even had the best career of all players currently on the team.

• James Posey stands farther away from the team huddle than TV sideline reporter Stacey Paetz

Mired in a three-game losing streak and not long after a reported players-only meeting, the Pacers got off to another signature slow start against Philadelphia, eventually losing by the looks-closer-than-it-was score of 110-100. In a game between the 7th- and 8th-seeded teams in the Eastern Conference, the 76ers took control very early in a game they never trailed. It was Indiana’s third wire-to-wire loss in their last four games.

Just once, in fact, did the Pacers even lurk in their opponent’s shadow. Down 15 in the second quarter, Indiana went on an 8-0 run and appeared likely to cut the deficit to just a handful at the break. But one long three-pointer and a flying tip-in by the Sixers soon brought the difference back to 12. It never got much closer until a late rally attempt sputtered, once again revealing the bad start to be Indiana’s Achilles’ Hell.

A daunting March schedule, including six back-to-backs and six road dates in an eight-game span, had people expecting a rough start to the season’s most important month. It’s been more than just a few losses to playoff-bound teams, however. The Pacers have had no answers, no go-to-guy, no chance.

Fortunately, they play in the Eastern Conference, where seemingly every other team in the hunt for the final remaining postseason berth has given up. It’s very realistic that the Pacers could back into the 8th seed and the assured sweep from Boston, but what’s most disconcerting is the lack of answers now.

It seems increasingly likely that Danny Granger, Roy Hibbert and Darren Collison disappear for long stretches. Granger did not score a single point in the second half until he converted a meaningless jumper (plus a free-throw) with his team down by 12 with just a minute left. Vogel’s assertion that “no one in the NBA plays harder than Tyler Hansbrough” was spot on tonight, as he was the sole bright spot for the Pacers (26 points on 11-for-14 shooting in 30 minutes), but that can’t be the entire backbone of the franchise. Let us not forget that when the Pacers took Hansbrough with their first round pick in 2009 Jay Bilas said that every practice just got much better.

Not a game, not a game, not a game. We’re talking about practice.

The team is in a current state of flux. Recent efforts have been made to clean up the team’s image, bring in character guys and create a more likeable image. All of these efforts have been successful, the occasional drug suspension or domestic violence allegation notwithstanding. Don’t get me wrong: I’ll be the first person to celebrate the small step of returning to the playoffs.

Ultimately, however, it comes down to winning. There’s still time to do enough of that to grab the final spot into the postseason, but are there any long-term answers in Indianapolis other than Tyler Hansbrough playing hard?

It would be nice if the questions about the Pacers were this easy to answer. (via Everything You Love to Hate)

Unfortunately for Indiana, after they got out to comfortable lead in the second quarter, the Warriors surged. Golden States turned a double-digit deficit into a 9-point advantage with a 21-1 run before Brandon Rush hit a three to end an Indiana drought that seemingly started during the Cretaceous Period. Overall, Rush played a solid game with a few much-needed shots and well-timed defensive plays when his team needed it most.

When they had a chance to pull away early, the Pacers’ performance throughout the middle of the game was like Stephen Curry’s beard: something was just missing. But just when it looked like we might see a meltdown, the Pacers righted the ship in the third quarter. After going into the locker room down 3, the Pacers outscored the Warriors 37-25 in the period and were in control, entering the fourth with a 9-point lead.

A flurry of Fancy Paul George Moments (hereafter referred to as FPGMs) helped to keep the Warriors at bay despite a barrage of long-range jumpers, and the Pacers relied again on their stars to anchor. Danny Granger accounted for 10 points in the final five minutes, including going 8-for-8 from the stripe. (For the game, he was a super-impressive 16/16 from the line. This was his first time getting to the line 16 times since January 3, 2009.)

Golden State kept shooting, but when the NBA’s leading three-point shooter, Dorell Wright, missed a three, the game was over.

Coming off consecutive losses and staring down a three-game Texas road trip (OKC counts as Texas just as Canada counts as part of the United States), Indiana desperately needed a win. It’s been four seasons since the Pacers made the playoffs.

The road back will require many nights of just getting the job done. That’s what happened tonight and it should put the players in a much better frame of mind as they head out of the road — where they play 11 of their next 15 games.

Other thoughts

• Most people in Indiana remember Golden State head coach Keith Smart for his game-winning shot in the 1987 NCAA title game, but I was a fetus then. I’ll never forget the legendary day in Fort Wayne when he became the CBA’s all-time leading scorer

• Say what you will about his legal missteps or the graduation rate of his college choice, but no one gets in the lane and misses a point-blank shot quicker than Lance Stephenson.

On a night where all three stars were relative non-factors early, the bench brigade elevated the Pacers early. Led by their commander Tyler Hansbrough, the reserves scored 24 of the Pacers’ first 38 points en route to accounting for two-thirds of the team’s first half points.

Danny Granger, Roy Hibbert and Darren Collison eventually did make contributions (and large ones) down the stretch, but the second-year Hansbrough (“It’s like his rookie year!” they’ve repeated, ad nauseam, on the TV broadcasts) was the story of the night. His 21 points and 12 rebounds were huge, but Hansbrough’s non-statistics were even bigger.

Case and point: With the game tied at 95 and three minutes remaining, Hansbrough missed a jump shot only to launch himself into a crowded lane and tip the rebound to Granger, who nailed a three. All night long, Psycho T was after the ball like a hobo on a ham sandwich.

The club announced just an hour before game time that Mike Dunleavy was out indefinitely with a thumb injury (so much for an expiring contract trade for another piece). That coupled with Granger picking up two fouls before tip-off made the Pacers play left-handed.

The Pistons weren’t without their own woes either. Tayshaun Prince — the assassin that offed the Pacers a week ago — appeared hurt, apathetic or both early. In other words, he looked like the physical embodiment of the actual city of Detroit. His contributions were limited to zero points in nine minutes.

Tied at 16 with 2:15 remaining in the first quarter, a Hansbrough-infused tear to end the first quarter put the Pacers in the driver’s seat for the majority of the game. Benefitting from Vogel’s if-it-ain’t-broke-don’t-fix-it rotations, a squad of castoffs and second-round picks put the Pistons on the ropes in the second and third quarters.

So frustrated was Detroit with its inability to handle the Pacers back-ups that Rodney Stuckey was called for a technical (great idea in a one-point game!) one play after Hansbrough’s persistence resulted in more second-chance points for Indiana.

Of course, the game wasn’t without its share of concerns. Such is professional basketball in a contest where the good guys needed an unlikely dunk from Brandon Rush (he is alive!) with five seconds left. Twice, the Pistons cut down on 16-point leads, Hibbert took only three shots from the field, and who the hell keeps giving Josh McRoberts the green light to shoot three-pointers?

Can Danny come out and play? Granger was big down the stretch with 11 points in the fourth quarter and a huge game-winning assist to the cutting Rush on the last offensive play. He, Hibbert and Collison will ultimately need to carry this team to the playoffs, however. Depth is great, but those who get the lion’s share of minutes need to be able to roar for most of the game.

Tyler Hansbrough just plays hard.

Tonight that was enough, but in a star-centered league, it won’t always be.

Non-game thoughts

• Mike Dunleavy may be making $10 million (or exactly twice what Jamaal Tinsley is making to stay away) to sit on the bench for the foreseeable future, but his suit was fresh.

• What is with the infatuation of Lance Stevenson? Local TV announcers Chris Denari and Quinn Buckner made his dressing for the game out to be a big leap forward in his career. Just send him to the D-League team in Fort Wayne and be done with it until next season.

• Damon Bailey jersey sighting in the first quarter! Let’s not totally dismiss the idea that it could have been Bailey himself. I once saw a homeless man wearing a Drew Bledsoe New England Patriots jersey along the canal in Indianapolis and thought the same thing.