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.

Well at least the offense appears to be clicking.

But the Pacers' lauded defense was nowhere to be seen, allowing open jumpers and back cuts to the basket all night long in a very disappointing 114-110 loss in OT.

The Pacers shot 54.3% from the field, which is almost unheard of for them, but they allowed 98 points in regulation and 16 more in overtime while allowing the Jazz to shoot at 53%. Even though they dominated the boards 41-28, the allowed about a zillion offensive rebounds in OT (in a row, mind you) and were extremely sloppy with the ball, turning it over 21 times with lazy passes and poor ball protection.

David West had 24, newly minted All-Star Paul George had 23, George Hill had 22 and Roy Hibbert had 14 and 12, but was repeatedly burned by the Jazz on the defensive end. DJ Augustin was the standout off the bench with 11, and it's good to see him finally gaining some confidence. Gerald Green, by the way, was sent back to be analyzed by doctors after complaining of feeling ill lately. Hopefully it's nothing serious.

Anyway, the Pacers played bad enough for most of the game but not bad enough to be blown out. Somehow, thanks to a trio of turnovers from Gordon Hayward, they came back to push the game into OT. And even when it looked like the game was over in OT, the Pacers managed to hit some ridiculously tough three-pointers (first Paul George then George Hill) to cut the game back to a one-possession game.

Then something strange happened. With just a few seconds to go, Al Jefferson inbounded the ball from his own baseline and it clipped the backboard on its way in, and was tapped around before it ended back in his hands and he was fouled, effectively ending the game.

There was a lot of confusion and the refs ruled that the ball had clipped the side/bottom of the backboard, meaning that it was not a violation.

According to Rule 1(c) of the NBA Rules:

c. Five sides of the backboard (front, two sides, bottom and top) are considered in play when contacted by the basketball. The back of the backboard and the area directly behind it are out-of-bounds.

Based on this rule, it meant that the ball was in play and the no-call was correct. However, it is arguable that the ball at least hit some of the back of the backboard, considering Jefferson was inbounding from behind the baseline, and photos showed the ball hit the bottom right corner from behind.

Moreover, I think this rule should have in any case been overruled by Rule 8 Section III (f) of the NBA Rules:

f. A throw-in which touches the floor, or any object on or outside the boundary line, or touches anything above the playing surface is a violation. The ball must be thrown directly inbounds.

The backboard is, technically, within the boundary line and therefore above the playing surface. I didn't write the rules but I don't know how else to interpret this other than that a throw-in that touches any part of the backboard on its way in is a violation, and the ball should have gone to the Pacers. Then again, a player is also "anything" above the playing service, so perhaps the rules are just badly written and don't make sense.

Not to say the ruling cost the Pacers the game, because quite honestly they didn't deserve to win it and should never have allowed themselves to be in that position in the first place.

The loss shouldn't be all that surprising considering how unstable the Pacers have been on the road, and this is the third game of a tough Western Conference road trip. The last leg of the trip is in Denver, and the Nuggets have traditionally been a horrible matchup for the Pacers. It will take one of their best efforts of the year to get the win.