I'm glad the Pacers got this one against Hawks because they can be forgiven for losing their game tomorrow night against the 76ers in Philly. It will be their third game in three nights, the only time this will happen to any team in the league this season, thanks to  that rescheduled game against the Bulls.

The 114-103 scoreline makes it sound like a fast paced game, but this one was actually painfully slow -- and awful to watch -- with a total of 59 fouls committed and 68 free throw attempts. A play in the second half took 10 minutes to decide, with multiple replays finally giving the Hawks a flagrant foul and the Pacers a technical. In the end, however, Paul George was simply too much, scoring 29 points to go with 5 rebounds and 4 assists to give the Pacers their fourth consecutive win and 15th consecutive home win. They are now 30-19 for the season and lead the Bulls by half a game for the third seed in the East.

All five starters scored in double figures. West had 15, including a few clutch baskets down the stretch. Hibbert had 12 on 6-8 shooting, George Hill had 15 points and 8 assists, and Lance Stephenson had 14. Mahinmi had 12 and Augustin 10 off the bench. And Gerald Green got a DNP - Coach's decision. That must hurt. Hopefully it will inspire him to improve like it did for Augustin earlier in the season.

The Pacers are now 20-3 at home but just 10-16 on the road. They have to get better away from Banker's Life Fieldhouse, and it can start with the 21-26 76ers tomorrow. The team's offense has been clicking, with tonight's win their third game in a row scoring over 100 points, but the defense has slipped a little. If they can get both working at the same time by the end of the season it will be scary.

The Pacers started their three-games-in-three-nights stretch with a solid 111-101 win over the Chicago Bulls today, pulling the two teams into a tie for the Central Division lead with identical 29-19 records but with the Pacers holding a 2-0 head-to-head edge for the season.

For a while, it looked like the Pacers were going to run away with it after going up 14 early in the fourth and that perhaps Frank Vogel could rest his starters knowing that they had two more games in the next two nights. But to the Bulls' credit, even without Joakim Noah, they were able to fight back and closed within 4 with a 1.5 minutes to go -- until Paul George hit a dagger three-pointer off a screen, and the Pacers were able to hold on by going a perfect 10-10 from the free throw line the rest of the way.

David West continued his beastly ways with 29 points, 9 rebounds and 4 assists on 11-18 shooting, and Paul George was again stellar with 21 points, 11 rebounds and 5 assists. George Hill didn't even miss a shot until the fourth quarter and finished with 22 points and 6 assists on 7-10 shooting.

Lance Stephenson had a good game offensively (15 points, 5 assists) but was absolutely burned on the defensive end by the crafty Marco Belinelli, who led the Bulls with 24 points in as many minutes and was damn near unstoppable at times.

One would think Roy Hibbert would have a big game with Noah out, but no, the big fella continued to struggle with an abysmal 6 points and 9 rebounds on 3-11 shooting. Even when he receives the ball or grabs the offensive rebound right under the ring it's nowhere near a certainty that he can finish. It's that bad.

The Pacers have now won three-straight after dropping the last three games of their West coast road trip. Tomorrow night they play the Hawks, a team they have lost to twice already this season on the road. But this time it's in Indiana, and it's time for revenge.

Let's not get carried away with this February victory but a win against the defending champions is great whenever you can get it. After winning against them just a month ago in a game that wasn't really that close, you could be forgiven for thinking that the Heat would be eager for payback and would be too much for the inconsistent, Danny Granger-less Pacers. In fact, the commentators specifically made a note of how switched on and focused the Heat looked before the game, so puh-lease, none of that 'the Heat weren't really trying' business. Let's not kid ourselves. The Heat wanted this one bad.

However, so did David West and the Pacers. The bruising Pacers bigs -- West and Hansbrough in particular -- were too much for height and size challenged Heat. West was in beast mode all night long, pouring in a season-high 30 points to go with 7 rebounds and 5 assists on 12-15 shooting from the field and 6-6 from the line. It was vintage West -- reliable, intelligent, skillful, unstoppable. Hansbrough was by far the most productive player off the bench with 11 points, almost single-handedly carrying the Pacers' second unit in the second quarter.

Paul George's matchup against Lebron was a great one. On paper, Lebron dominated 28-15, but I could have sworn it was a lot closer than that when watching it on the TV. PG24 had some great moments and hit the big buckets when it counted. Not bad against a prime King James.

Lance Stephenson was huge, putting up 15 points and putting the clamps down on Dwyane Wade to "hold" him to 17 points. To be honest, Stephenson wasn't quite as good as the numbers suggested, getting a ton of his passes deflected, turning it over 3 times (though it felt like 10) and setting for a lot of ill-advised jumpers with the shot clock winding down.

Roy Hibbert made a difference on the defensive end, but let's not pretend the big fella is not still struggling very badly. 7 points on 3-8 shooting, 6 rebounds and 2 blocks in 30 minutes. People are trying to defend his play by highlighting his defense, but unless he wins DPOY his max contract is looking worse by the day. You can't be a max player and be this bad at one end of the floor. Sorry, but it's the brutal truth.

In the end, the night still belonged to West.

The Pacers will need to be at their best as they embark on this season's only back-to-back-to-back -- for any team -- thanks to that rescheduled Bulls game that will see the Pacers play three games in three nights. The opponents are pretty nasty too -- Chicago and Atlanta at home and Philly on the road. If the Pacers can win all three I will be very impressed.

But for now, they can savor this win against the Heat. They deserved it.

PS: Sam Young is back! He was released and re-signed. People are pretending it will make a huge difference. I don't think his defense is really that good.

PPS: Granger has participated in his first team practice -- full court play too. And he beat Paul George and George Hill in an after-practice shooting game. Apparently he is in good shape but not yet game shape. They are trying to get him some court time before the All-Star break. That is all.

After what felt like a super long road trip out West, the Indiana Pacers finally returned to Banker's Life Fieldhouse to pound the shorthanded (lost Tayshaun Prince and Austin Daye in a trade) Detroit Pistons 98-79, snapping a 3-game losing streak to begin a long home-stretch with just a single road game until Feb. 23.

Not much to say except it was good to see the Pacers clicking again on the defensive end after giving up way too many points on their recent road trip. Although they got some bad calls to lose those last two games against the Jazz and Nuggets, at least it kind of got the team's dismal offense going a little bit. Put that together with a solid defensive effort like tonight and they will be hard to beat on most nights at home.

Roy Hibbert led the way with 18 points (7-14 shooting) and 11 rebounds. Remember when that kind of stat line was expected of Hibbert rather than it being one of his best performances of the season? Sigh...

Paul George had an off game 10 points and 6 turnovers, but the rest of the team picked up the slack. David West had 14, George Hill had 15 and Lance Stephenson had 12. Tyler Hansbrough chipped in with 14 off the bench.

A true measuring stick game coming up against the Miami Heat at home on Friday. Last time the Pacers caught the Heat when they were going through a slide. They're now confident and are going to be gunning for revenge, so the Pacers better be ready.

Danny Granger is apparently due to return during this long home stretch, so start looking out for a surprise.

This is the kind of game that gets gives ammunition to the theory that some NBA refs are dirty.

The Indiana Pacers had just come all the way back from a 14-point fourth quarter deficit to tie the game at 101 apiece with the Denver Nuggets. Paul George has the ball on what was supposed to be the final possession of the game. He drives against Andre Iguodala , who makes all sorts of contact as he sticks his entire arm across George's chest and deflects the ball. No call. Iguodala gets the ball and calls a timeout with 0.5 seconds to go. The Pacers can't believe it.

From the inbounds play, the Nuggets lob the ball towards the hoop. Paul George boxes out Iguodala, who jumps and flails and gets nowhere near the ball. The refs call a foul anyway.

Iguodala makes the first and intentionally misses the second.

Game over, Pacers lose 102-101.

Seriously, if you're not going to call the Iguodala foul on one end how can you possibly call the George foul on the other? Say what you want but there is no way to describe the way this game ended other than to say that it was decided by the referees.

Second game in a row where the Pacers have a legitimate gripe against the officiating after that botched inbounds call against the Jazz a couple of nights ago.

It's also the Pacers' third loss in a row as they return from a 1-3 west coast road trip.

Disappointing, but at least now they return home, where they can take their fury out on the Pistons at home on Wednesday.