Seriously, is there any lingering doubt that David West is the Indiana Pacers' best player (even when Danny Granger returns)?

All the 32-year-old veteran has been doing this season is carry this struggling team on his back to big wins like he did tonight against the Sacramento Kings, pouring in a season-high 31 points, grabbing 11 boards while shooting 65% from the field. The Pacers won, by the way, 97-92, pulling them to 0.500 (8-8) for the first time in what feels like forever.

The sad part is that West isn't supposed to be the MAN here. Having signed that max contract, Roy Hibbert is/was supposed to fill that role, but so far all he has shown is that he didn't deserve even half of the money he'll be getting. Not to say Roy hasn't tried, because it's clear he's doing the best he can, but I think he and everyone else thought he could just come back and dominate this season without having put in the extra work to develop his game (not just his conditioning). The other guy supposed to have a breakout year, Paul George, had a breakout game with that 37-point, 9-three performance the other night, but he's still too inconsistent. Both "franchise" guys are shooting below 40% from the field.

It's scary to think what the team would be like without George Hill, who has clearly been the Pacers' second best player this season thus far and hit a couple of game winners already. And both of him and West only joined the team last year (and what a great offseason that was).

So for now, it remains up to David West and his team-leading 17.4 points and 8.3 rebounds to continue carrying the team. Up next, the red hot Warriors, who are 9-6 on the season, including 6-2 in their last 8 games.

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I felt much more confident about the Pacers going into their showdown with the Lakers at the Staple Center after their solid loss (if there is such a thing) against the Spurs several days ago. The offense was still rocky but it showed signs on improving, as did players such as Roy Hibbert and DJ Augustin (who both sucked tonight, unfortunately).

I was less optimistic when I found out that Kobe would be playing despite battling the flu. Kobe always has good games when he is sick because he is dying to have a monumental "flu game" like Michael Jordan, and I was afraid the Pacers -- who always tend to give up huge numbers to superstars -- would be a victim.

In the end, the Pacers' offense was still fugly and Kobe took off for 40 points (he had a triple-double, actually, with 10 rebounds and 10 turnovers!), but it didn't matter because George Hill hit a running right-handed scoop shot high off the glass over the outstretched hands of Dwight Howard, with the ball sinking through the hoop with 0.01 seconds left -- effectively a buzzer beater. Game over, 79-77. Pacers win.

I'll admit, the Pacers were a little lucky tonight. Pau Gasol played with tendinitis, but he's usually David West's bitch anyway, so that wasn't huge, though it did count. Kobe, of course, was sick, and both Steves (Nash and Blake) remain out with injuries. And of course, the Lakers appear to be still trying to find themselves under new coach Mike D'Antoni, so it's not like the Pacers beat a full-strength team clicking on all cylinders. Dwight also missed a couple of big free throws along with Metta World Peace in crunch time, so that certainly helped too.

For the game, Hill led the Pacers with 19 points, including the team's final 4, to go with his 5 rebounds and 5 assists. David West was huge, as expected, putting up 16 points, 10 rebounds and 8 assists, and I don't understand why the Pacers don't feed him the ball more often (like on every possession). Paul George had 12 points and 9 rebounds and Hibbert had 8 points, 5 rebounds and 3 blocks before fouling out in just 18 minutes, giving Ian Mahinmi a chance to play his best game of the season with 11 points in 30 minutes.

So the Pacers are off to a 1-0 start on their 4-game road trip to continues with games against the Kings and Warriors before heading back to the East to face the Bulls. All three are definitely winnable but it's never clear which Pacers team might show up for the night.

My personal expectations for the Pacers this season was for them to be a team that easily takes care of lottery teams and occasionally stuns the elite teams with grind-put performances like this one. So far, they've struggled against even the lottery teams, so my hope is that they can build on this victory and continue heading in the right direction.

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I won't lie. I thought the Indiana Pacers were going to embarrass themselves again against the San Antonio Spurs, but they actually put up a respectable effort and led by 17 points before the inevitable comeback, ending with a 104-97 loss.

A loss is a loss but at least it showed that the Pacers can compete with one of the best and most efficient teams in the league at both ends of the floor. A long way go still, but it's encouraging to see the Pacers slowly turning their season around.

David West led the way with 22 points while Paul George had 15. Roy Hibbert was 5-18 and finished with 10 points and 11 rebounds to go with 2 blocks, but was dominated by the ageless Duncan, who had 22 and 17 on 10-19 shooting. Tony Parker, whom the Pacers could have drafted instead of Jamaal Tinsley, led all scorers with 33.

Perhaps the most positive sign for the Pacers was DJ Augustin leading the Pacers with 8 assists to go with his 8 points. The dude has been gutter awful all season and this is hopefully a sign of better things to come.

The Pacers next face the 7-7 Lakers at Staples and it will take a damn near miracle to get a win, though I am much more confident than I was before this game against the Spurs.

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I know, I know. A win is a win. That's what we've been saying all season as the Pacers continue to struggle.

But at least it has been exciting to watch for fans who like their games to go down to the wire.

Once again, the Pacers needed to go all out to top a supposedly lottery team missing a key piece. On the back of Roy Hibbert's first career triple-double (10 points, 11 rebounds and a career high 11 blocks) and a career scoring night from Paul George (37 points, including 33 and a Reggie Miller record-breaking 9 three-pointers after half time), the Pacers somehow managed to squeeze by a New Orleans Hornets team missing no. 1 overall pick Anthony Davis in OT, 115-107. With the victory, the Pacers earned their first winning streak of the season and improved with 6-7, including a 4-1 record at home.

For the majority of the night, it looked like another one of those games, where an inferior opponent would out-execute and out-hustle the Pacers to a win the Pacers should have in the bag. Every time the Pacers decided to rely on their talent to go on a run, the Hornets answered by getting to the offensive rebounds and loose balls. I lost count the number of times when I thought the game was effectively safe, but only to have the Pacers go complacent and allow the Hornets back in the game.

On the whole, it was a game that demonstrated that the Pacers still have a long way to go before getting anywhere close to becoming the type of team they were last season -- BUT they appear to be on the right track towards getting there, eventually.

It was a night where Frank Vogel had to rely on his starters again, as newcomers Gerald Green, Ian Mahinmi and DJ Augustin still haven't figured out how make an impact. When Tyler Hansbrough is your best bench guy (11 points, 9-10 from the line including the 4 icing free throws), you know your team is in trouble.

The biggest positives to take away from the game are:

• what appears to be an increasingly confident Roy Hibbert. After putting up a season high 20 and 12 the game before, he still struggled with his shot but helped out in other areas of his game tonight with the impressive triple-double -- that's a very encouraging sign and one can only hope his confidence won't be shattered again in the next two games against the Spurs and the Lakers;
• Paul George going nuts. Seriously, he hit everything in that second half. Obviously, it's likely to be a once-off kind of thing, but if it can spur him on to more consistent performances that would be just the thing the Pacers need;
• George Hill and David West playing solid for 16 points apiece. I still think less Hill and more West is preferable for the Pacers' offense though;
• Lance Stephenson continuing to be a valuable piece, to everyone's surprise. 12, 5 and 5 on 5-9 shooting, and some of the best exaggerated mid-game celebrations of all time, including some red-cheek inducing ass slaps;
• a season high 115 points (though it took OT to get there) shows the offense is improving. Still a lot of room for improvement but a lot less unwatchable than it has been; and
• only 8 turnovers (which must also be a season low), and 26 assists on 40 field goals. Damn, I am getting unnecessarily excited.

Pacers fans can rejoice for now after an exciting win with big games from two of its stars. But I will be really surprised if the Pacers can pull out wins in their next two games. One can always hope, I suppose.

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It should never have come down to it, but a win is a win, even if it was an ugly one against the winless Washington Wizards.

The Indiana Pacers somehow managed to squander a 20-point lead in the third quarter before David West activated beast mode in the fourth, scoring 13 of his season-best 30 points, including 4 of the team's last 5 field goals (he assisted on the 5th one to Roy Hibbert), to give the Pacers a hard fought 96-89 road victory. For the game, West shot 10-14 from field, 10-10 from the line and had 8 rebounds, 3 assists and 4 blocks.

The other encouraging news is that Roy Hibbert finally broke out of a season-long slump to pour in 20 points and 12 rebounds to go with 4 blocks despite battling foul trouble. It's not a spectacular performance but it's better than anything we've seen from Roy since signing that max contract.

The truth is, while the Pacers will take any win they can get right now, this was still an awful performance. When your team needs to rely on a 32-year-old a year removed from ACL surgery to carry them down the stretch to a tight victory against the worst team in the league missing their two best players (John Wall and Nene), that says a lot about where the Pacers are right now. 

Fact is, the West and especially Hibbert won't play like this every night. Paul George, who is supposed to be having a breakout year, had only 6 points and appears to actually be regressing, while George Hill continues to be wildly inconsistent. Gerald Green has been okay at times, but DJ Augustin and Ian Mahinmi have been outright disasters thus far.

Augustin has been so much (so so so so so much) worse than the guy he replaced, Darren Collison, that it's not even funny anymore. Calling Mahinmi a poor man's Lou Amundson might actually be a compliment. That's how bad things are for them right now. The bench stinks and that's that.

Are there any answers? Not really. You can expect the team to play better as a unit eventually (because it can't get much worse) but it's a stretch to think that they can suddenly rise into the elite having played like turds all season. Frank Vogel has to take some of the blame because the team has to much talent to be the worst offensive team in the league.

Their series win against a Dwight Howard-less Magic and taking the partly Bosh-less Heat to 6 games appears to have given the team a false sense of hope and entitlement. They thought they would just have to come back this season and the second seed would be theirs. Oops.

Fortunately, the Pacers get another decent opportunity to get a win against the New Orleans Hornets on Wednesday before facing the Spurs and the Lakers (two games that could get really nasty). Here's to hoping that they can string together their first winning streak of the entire season.