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.