Let's face it, it's now only going to be a matter of time before the Indiana Pacers capture their maiden NBA title, because coach Frank Vogel has announced that Ben Hansbrough, the baby brother of Tyler "Psycho-T" Hansbrough, is about to become the Pacers' back-up point guard. Starting (well, coming off the bench) tonight in their game against the Cavaliers.

There's no telling where this move will take the Pacers, but given how DJ Augustin (and to be fair, the majority of the Pacers bench on most nights) has played so far this year (like a turd on a stick), surely things cannot get worse.

At the very least, B-Hans will play every possession like his life depends on it. At least his NBA life, anyway, because it's true. No one expected him to even make the 15-man roster. Everyone thought he only got a shot because of his big brother. But in pre-season and exhibition play at least, B-Hans wasn't awful and actually stringed together a few decent games. Not bad for a 6'3" undrafted point guard. Then again, Augustin played pretty well before the season started too.

Perhaps B-Hans will revive his big bro, who is still a psycho but has yet to find a way to consistently channel that psychosis into net positives. Maybe Tyler might start passing the ball now. Even if it's just to his little brother, at least it's somebody. Or maybe the siblings will develop some sort of supernatural chemistry and become the best dynamic bench duo in the league?

Honestly though, all jokes aside, B-Hans shouldn't be looked upon as anything more than Vogel trying something new to try and give his bench and Augustin a kick up the backside. He's not going to be the next Jeremy Lin, and when he struggles -- and he undoubtedly will -- it's not because he's not trying hard enough. 

Best of luck!

Two steps forward, two steps back...although you can't say the outcome of this game was unexpected. The Indiana Pacers dropped their second straight after losing 104-93 against the Oklahoma City Thunder, falling to 10-11 for the season.

To be honest it wasn't a horrible performance. For the majority of the game they were in the hunt and managed to keep Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook to poor shooting nights. But they seemed to have forgotten about Kevin Martin, who lit them up early until Durant and Westbrook decided to take over down the stretch.

Still, in all a decent outing by the Pacers against last year's NBA finalists. David West had 21 and 9 to lead all five starters in double figures. The bench, unfortunately, failed to get it done again, though 20 points is not too bad by their current standards. As a team, the Pacers shot 46.3% from the field, which is great considering they are last in the league in FG%. Plus they only had 7 turnovers the entire game. The Thunder were just better.

The Pacers get a bit of a rest now before playing Cleveland at home on Wednesday. They gotta box out Anderson Varejao if they want to get back to 0.500 again.

The Indiana Pacers appeared to have momentum heading into their showdown with the Denver Nuggets at Bankers Life Fieldhouse, so it's disappointing to see them crumple down the stretch and hand the Nuggets a 92-89 victory.

I had hoped for JaVale McGee to score some baskets for the Pacers but instead he dominated Roy Hibbert, who was kept to 10 and 9 on 3-10 shooting (though that's becoming the norm for Roy these days). Wasn't a whole lot to dislike apart from the loss and the stinky bench (again). Paul George led the way again with 22 points in yet another encouraging sign that he is taking a step forward in his game, while David West continued to be beast with 18 and 11. The reserves only gave the Pacers 12 points, and 9 of those came from Sam Young of all people.

Whatever.

Next game, the Thunder in Oklahoma City. Could get ugly.

The Indiana Pacers were ready for a letdown game after an impressive 3-1 road trip out West. But instead, the team seized the opportunity to go over 0.500 for the first time since they started the season 2-1, and defeated the Portland Trailblazers 99-92 to improve to 10-9 for the season including 5-2 at home.

Observations:

-  The Pacers gave their fans another scare when they looked like they were going to squander an 18-point 4th quarter lead; it got down to 4 with more than 5 minutes to go before the Pacers got their act together.

- I bag the Pacers bench a lot so tonight they must receive some credit. Psycho-T was huge in the first half with 10 points and Mahinmi took another step forward with a solid 12-points-without-a-miss performance. Gerald Green hit some timely shots. DJ Augustin scored a point.

- Paul George backed up his 34-point performance last night with 22 points, 8 rebounds and 5 assists. Way to go. Now do it again the next game.

- David West continues his beastly ways: 16 points (8-11 shooting), 10 rebounds and one big jumper to keep the Blazers at bay down the stretch. Whenever he takes a mid-range shot it looks and feels like it's gonna be all net.

- Roy Hibbert really showed the Blazers what they missed out on when the Pacers matched their max contract...NOT! Well, kind of. Hibbert had 10 points and 7 rebounds in 29 minutes to go with 3 blocks, but shot just 3-13 from the field. Really ugly misses too. If Roy was on the same contract he was on last year then tonight's performance would have been great. But he's not.

- This Damian Lillard kid from Portland, who led all scorers with 23, is sick. When can the Pacers draft a player like him?

Next up, the Denver Nuggets on Friday night at Bankers Life. I think they're an underrated team and I have a feeling Ty Lawson will have a big one. Hopefully JaVale McGee does something stupid and the Pacers win.

After chucking up a turd in the last game against the Warriors in his last game, Paul George came to play tonight against the Bulls in Chicago, putting up an efficient 34 points on 14-25 shooting to go with 9 rebounds as the Pacers survived with an 80-76 victory.

Importantly, the win puts the Pacers back to 0.500 at 9-9, which puts them in a three-way tie for first place in the Central division along with the Bulls and the Bucks. It also ends an unexpectedly successful 3-1 road trip, showing perhaps the Pacers are back on track for the season. Maybe.

It was again an ugly, low-scoring and low-percentage game between two strong defensive teams. The Bulls had been struggling somewhat without Derrick Rose and recently lost Richard Hamilton to injury as well, so I guess you could say the Pacers caught a bit of a break. They also caught a break on what was effectively the Bulls' final offensive possession of the game. With the Pacers up 78-76, Luol Deng drove down the basline and was challenged by Roy Hibbert. Hibbert went pretty much straight up and Deng flailed his arms hoping for a call, but no whistle came. That was essentially the ball game as David West grabbed the ball, got fouled, and calmly sank two freebies to ice it.

Speaking of West (who has been BEAST lately), he had an off night shooting the ball and finished with just 10 points, but the dude was still huge down the stretch with some nifty passing and the aforementioned free throws. It's frightening to think that he will be an unrestricted free agent at the end of this year and no one knows if he intends to stay. If he leaves the Pacers might as well blow things up and start over from the bottom.

Two more things. First, Roy Hibbert's defense continues to be strong, and he showed glimpses in the third quarter that he can still be a solid offensive player if he gets the ball at the right spots. His confidence appears to be returning but he's still missing too many shots right up at the rim -- he should be making these in his sleep. It's inexcusable for any player, let alone a 7-2 NBA player on a max contract.

Secondly, the bench continues to be a scary bag of vomit. Every starter, including Hibbert, played at least 34 minutes tonight, with Paul George looking really tired by the end after playing 41 minutes. Every time the Pacers went to the bench the Bulls made a run. It's ridiculous.

When Danny Granger returns it will shift Lance Stephenson to the bench, instantly making him the team's best reserve, which makes me shudder just thinking about it. Ian Mahinmi is showing flashes of decency but Gerald Green remains all over the shop and DJ Augustin has descended beyond rock bottom. Tyler Hansbrough's shooting is not that far behind either.

I love watching the Pacers starters play, but if they keep playing so many minutes I'm sure they're going to wear down before the season ends and it's not going to be pretty. I think a trade of some sort is needed eventually because they can't wait forever for the bench to live up to its potential.