I can't wait to see Dan Klores' new documentary, "Winning Time: Reggie Miller vs The New York Knicks", which just premiered in New York's Ziegfeld's Theater.

The star of the film, Reggie Miller, was there himself, along with Spike Lee, John Starks, Ahmad Rashad and many other celebrity guests.

The event was covered by LockerBlogger (see video above), a pretty awesome digital media website which allows pro athletes to blog, post their stuff and connect with fans.  NBA (and former NBA) stars featured on the website include JR Smith, Blake Griffin, Jason Kidd, Charlie Villanueva and Allan Houston.  Clever idea.

Anyway, back to "Winning Time".  Great title, but bad timing, considering how awful the Pacers are going this season.  Perhaps "Tanking Time: Though We'll Never Publicly Admit It" would have been more appropriate?

Yes, Danny Granger may be facing a suspension for the third quarter scuffle in that game against the Phoenix Suns, but I like what I saw.

The Pacers need a leader.  Someone they can count on.  Someone that has everyone's back.  Someone that has balls.

I used to think Danny didn't seem like he cared enough out there this season, but Granger showed me that he is someone the Pacers can depend on by sticking up for Earl Watson after Watson was shoved by Channing Frye.

Granger said: “They were playing dirty and (throwing) cheap shots at one of my teammates. That’s the tale of the tape. Watch the tape yourself and you’ll see what happened.”

Even more telling was the way Granger reacted to the merciless boos for the rest of the game: "I love it, I absolutely love it. When you can get an entire auditorium chanting 'you (stink),' that’s pretty nice I think.”

It's good to see Granger has a bit of Reggie Miller in him.  That's what this franchise needs.

And Granger's actions appeared to have paid off.  According to Roy Hibbert: “I think tonight was the first time, even though we lost, really played together."

When can this losing streak end??

Whoever approved the schedule for the Indiana Pacers must have something against the poor team.

I mean, seriously.  Four games in five nights.  LA Lakers, Portland Trailblazers back-to-back.  One day of rest and then the Denver Nuggets and Phoenix Suns, back-to-back.

The Pacers got shredded by both LA and Portland by 23 points.  Against Denver, they were more competitive, but ultimately lost 122-114.  This was against a Denver team without Ty Lawson and Kenyon Martin.

It was good to see Danny Granger going toe to toe with Carmelo Anthony.  Carmelo had 34 points, 6 boards, 4 assists and a block, shooting 12 of 20 from the field.  Danny had 32 points, 4 rebounds, 1 assist, 2 steals and 2 blocks, shooting 10 of 21 from the field.  Considering the type of player Carmelo is, that's not a terrible outcome for Danny (apart from the loss, of course).

Murphy, Hibbert, Rush, Watson and McRoberts all scored in double figures too.

It was good to see O'Brien give McRoberts some court time.  The guy brings so much energy.  Against the Nuggets he had 10 points in 23 minutes, shooting 5 of 6 from the field and adding 4 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 steals.

AJ Price also got a run.  9 minutes, 7 points.

Hope to see more from both of them against the Phoenix Sunds in their next game.

First the Lakers, now the Blazers.  Talk about a tough couple of nights.

After losing by 23 to LA the night before, the Indiana Pacers got trampled by the Portland Trailblazers 102-79.

Danny Granger broke out of his one game, Artest-induced slump to score 30, but no other Pacer scored in double figures.  That's just ridiculous.

The only good thing that came out of these two blowouts is that AJ Price got some playing time.  14 minutes, 5 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal and 0 turnovers.  You wonder why they don't play him more.

While we're on that, can someone explain to me why Josh McRoberts, who scored a career high 15 points in 23 minutes against the Lakers, didn't get more than 5 minutes against the Blazers?  What the heck is Jim O'Brien doing?

Solomon Jones returned from his one-game suspension and...got a DNP.

And by the way, the Pacers waived Travis Diener.  Not that it really matters at this point.  He wouldn't have played anyway.

As I watched the Indiana Pacers take on the LA Lakers tonight, a few things became crystal clear.

One, the Lakers were just better.  Taller, stronger, more skilled, more confident, significantly superior defensively, and a better star player.

Two, the Pacers were sporadically good but mostly bad.  Poor decision making, carelessness with the ball, and terrible defense just doesn't make up for occasional good ball rotation and shooting.

Three, there was no way the Pacers were going to win this one.

After taking a one-point lead in the first quarter (28-27) and only down by six at the half (60-54), the Lakers blew the game wide open mid-way through the third.  It all went according to script, with the Lakers starting to click and the Pacers falling apart.  Final score: 122-99.  Pacers are now 20-40.

I knew things weren't looking good when the Pacers, led by Josh McRoberts, played inspiring ball right out of the gate but couldn't pull away from the Lakers, who appeared as though they were bored and still half-asleep.  This meant that when the Lakers inevitably got their act together, the game was going to be over very quickly.

In my rival-banter with Don from With-Malice, I made the following predictions:

• Pacers will lose by 20+ (check; Pacers lost by 23)
• Troy Murphy will get dunked on (check; I'm sure this happened a few times, but I distinctively recall in the first quarter when he tried to guard Bynum, who just bulldozed Murphy out of the way and threw it down over his head)
• Danny Granger will shoot less than 40% from the field (check; Danny shot just 2/9 (22%), had zero boards and 4 turnovers)
• Roy Hibbert will be in foul trouble (check; of course, Big Roy picked up fouls right from the get go, missed a large chunk of the game, but played through with 5 fouls in garbage time and ended up playing 22 minutes)
• TJ Ford will have less than 3 assists (no check; TJ had 5 assists, thanks to a few easy ones in garbage time)

Huge news.

Forward/Center Solomon Jones has been suspended for one game and will miss the Pacers' game against the LA Lakers tonight.

The reason disclosed by the team was "conduct detrimental to the team", but that's just silly.  Tell us what the knucklehead did.  Let's be honest here.  On any given night, by simply playing for the Pacers, there will be several players who are engaging in conduct detrimental to the team (not to mention any names...cough cough, TJ Ford).

Jones is averaging 4.1 points in 13.2 minutes over 40 games this season, but his playing time has been sporadic.  Take a look at his minutes over the last 11 games:

0, 6, 0, 8, 7, 0, 20, 20, 6, 4, 0

I'd be pretty frustrated too.

He probably wouldn't have even played tonight anyway.

About time! 

The Indiana Pacers snapped a 3-game losing streak by beating the Chicago Bulls, 100-90.  They also avoided a regular season sweep by the Bulls.

Danny Granger top scored with 30 points, 8 rebounds and 4 steals, but had ZERO assists.  Troy Murphy had 17 points but only 4 rebounds.  Dahntay Jones had 17 off the bench.

Brandon Rush started and get this - 5 points in 36 minutes.  Earl Watson was even more impressive, starting, playing 34 minutes, and scoring 2 points without a field goal.  TJ Ford started as well (sadly, this probably means the shit sandwich lineup of Watson and Ford is here to stay), and had 9 points and 6 turnovers in 41 minutes.

How does a guy go from no playing time at all jus a few games ago to playing 41 minutes a game?

The most amazing thing of all is that despite all these problematic performances, the Pacers still managed to win.

Cra.Zy.

"We just want to play for each other," Roy Hibbert said. "I think we did a great job of that tonight. Maybe we can make a run. You never know what happens in this league."

Stop it.

I just finished reading the sensational and hilarious The Book of Basketball by "The Sports Guy", Bill Simmons (my full review of the book can be found here).

Naturally, The Book of Basketball discusses the legacies of Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, and of course, Larry Bird (Simmons' idol), but what does it say about the greatest Indiana Pacer of all-time, Reggie Miller?

Find out after the jump!

The Indiana Pacers are racking up losses faster than I can post about them.

Yesterday, the Pacers completed their 3-game road trip with a 120-110 loss to the Chicago Bulls.  Today, they went home and lost to the Bucks, 112-110.

Really no point in acting surprised, is there?  The Pacers have fallen to 19-39! Nineteen wins and thirty-nine losses!

And to cap it off, AJ Price is still not playing, and TJ Ford is playing more minutes.  Ford actually started in the back court today with Earl Watson.  Talk about a shit sandwich.