Maybe it's the addition of Ben Hansbrough to the Pacers rotation, but for some reason I wasn't that nervous even when the Cavs were hitting everything and sped to a double digit lead in Wednesday night's game. It just seemed improbable that they could keep those percentages up against one of the best defensive teams in the league. The question was whether the Pacers could score enough points to come back.

Turns out they didn't have to score a lot. The Pacers kept the Cavs to 23 second half points and ended up routing them 96-81 despite trailing by 6 at the half.

Paul George continued his consistent output by leading the way with 27 points. For those keeping tabs, since laying that goose egg in Golden State, PG24 has scored 34, 22, 22, 17, and 27 in his last five games while hitting 45-88 shots (51%) from the field. His scoring average for the season is now up to 16, and I think it will only continue to go up.

David West continued beast mode with 18, 9 and 7, and George Hill had 17 and 7, though he continues to shoot way too much (5-16 from the field). Lance Stephenson had another strong game (9 points) before he sprained his ankle. He will likely miss some time.

The most exciting part of the game was when Ben Hansbrough played alongside his big brother Tyler to lead the Pacers bench. I'll tell you what -- the idea of them being a dynamic duo might not be that far fetched. Baby Hans played 17 minutes and had 6 points, and assist and 2 steals without a turnover, while Big Hans had 7 points and 3 rebounds in 13 minutes.

Early in the fourth quarter, a battle for a rebound ended up Tristan Thompson throwing a wild elbow that connected with B-Han's head, sending big brother in a furious "don't you mess with my kid brother" rage. It was awesome to see and highly entertaining.

Big game next against Philly at home on Friday. Huge game, actually.

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.