It wasn't long ago that I accepted that this Indiana Pacers team, without Danny Granger at least, was going to be a grind-it-out team that would rarely pull away from opponents. They were good defensively, but the near-league-bottom offense was always going to hold them back.

Before the All-Star break, the Pacers started putting together some solid offensive games, mostly at home. It got me wondering whether they might finally be able to combine that with their defensive mindset -- which had been slipping a bit to that point -- to turn it into real dominance.

Well, they have, at least for the last couple of games. The Pacers first blew out the New York Knicks -- with Carmelo and Shumpert -- 125-91, in a game that wasn't close after the first quarter, and then blew out the Detroit Pistons 114-82. That's two games in a row where they have beaten their opponent by at least 30 points and held them under 100 points. Actually, add the Charlotte Bobcats blowout 101-77 just before the break, and that makes it three in a row. Never thought I'd see something like this.

Players are getting their confidence back during this stretch. They appear to finally believe they are an elite team. Paul George is starting to believe he is a superstar. Lance Stephenson has turned into a beast on the break and in pushing the pace. DJ Augustin appears to finally be filling the role he was meant to fill after stinking up the joint at the start of the season. Second round pick Orlando Johnson has turned into a valuable role player and a deadly shooter (as evidenced by his 14 points last game). Jeff Pendergraph is showing more consistent brilliance. The only guy who has continued to play poorly is Gerald Green, though hopefully all these garbage minutes he has been playing as of late can help him shoot his way out of a long slump. And did I mention that Roy Hibbert has looked less depressing? He's hasn't turned the  corner yet, but he might be getting close.

It isn't just having the offense click, either. The Pacers vaunted defense has showed signs of returning to full strength. The team is also more focused and jumping out to strong leads and not relenting as opponents try to come back, repelling wave after wave of attacks. This is starting to look like a mentally resilient team that believes it can do serious damage come playoff time.

Most of all, this is all happening without Danny Granger, who continues to sit out as he gets ready to return from a knee injury. According to Mike Wells from the Indy Star, Granger is set to return tonight against the Pistons in Detroit.

The Indiana Pacers participated in three events at the 2013 All-Star Weekend in Houston.

First of all, Paul George proved why he was a lognshot to win the 3-point comp with a contest-low 10 points out of a possible 30, including a rare air ball. Not to say George isn't a killer shooter, but it's not his type of competition. Kyrie Irving won, by the way, which was unexpected, at least for me.

Secondly, Gerald Green bombed out of the dunk comp after trying a dunk that was too difficult, even for the former champ. Following a perfect 50 from a double pump reverse alley-oop off the side of the backboard (courtesy of a Lance Stephenson pass), Green tried to dunk the ball with his right hand, catch it immediately under the rim with his left, and stuffing it through again, all in one motion. It proved too difficult, and Green ran out of time, finishing with just a 32. Of course, he completed the dunk on the first try immediately after that. If he had made it through to the final, Green would have attempted a double alley-oop windmill with the assistance of Lance Stephenson and Paul George.

In all, it was a lackluster dunk comp. There were some good dunks (Green's first and a few from winner Terrence Ross and runner up Jeremy Evans) but still too many misses. The main problem, apart from the lack of star power, is that we have seen too many dunks over the years and something really special is needed to impress us. But the higher the difficulty, the less chance of completing the dunk, which is why there are so many misses these days.

Last but not least it was Paul George in the main event, the All-Star Game. After a slow start, George finished with a Pacers NBA record 17 points to lead all reserves. The East would lose 143-138, but George kept them close at the end with back-to-back threes.

Overall, it was an OK All-Star break for the Pacers. Hopefully Paul George will take his game to the next level after seeing that he can compete with the best of the best. Next up, a huge game against the Knicks. Danny Granger still won't play, but he's close.

It didn't exactly feel like a dominating performance when watching it, but Paul George put up a spectacular 23, 12, 12 triple-double as the Pacers snapped a 2-game losing streak to rout the Bobcats 101-77. It was the fourth triple-double registered by a Pacer this season after Roy Hibbert, George Hill and David West.

Danny Granger was reportedly close to returning from knee injury but sat out with flu-like symptoms, while David West's swollen eye suffered in the Brooklyn game prevented him from playing. Didn't matter. Tyler Hansbrough racked up 19 points and 10 rebounds in his first start of the season, and Jeff Pendergraph put up another solid performance in a reserve role with 10 points, 8 rebounds and 2 blocks in 25 minutes.

The Pacers were falling apart a little bit after those two OT losses at home, and a win against the Bobcatswas exactly what they needed to get back on track.

A nice rest for the rest of the Pacers but Paul George will be busy with the 3-point comp and All-Star game, while Gerald Green will duke it out for his second slam dunk title.

Can't help wonder whether the effects of playing 3 games in 3 nights are finally beginning to show on the Indiana Pacers. After stringing together 15 consecutive home victories, the Pacers lost their second OT game in a row at Banker's Life Fieldhouse with an 89-84 decision to the Brooklyn Nets.

It was one of those sluggish games where the Pacers often got outhustled on offensive boards and the Nets made some tough shots to gut out an ugly win, even with Deron Williams, who sat out recovering his ankles.

Things got off to a bad start for the Pacers when David West went to the locker room a minute into the game after in inadvertent scratch to the eyeball. He came back in the second half and wasn't quite the same, putting up just 7 points on 2-11 shooting.

Worse was All-Star Paul George, who had one of his worst games ever with just 5 points on 1-10 shooting before fouling out. PG24 got zero respect from the refs tonight. Actually, the entire Pacers team got no respect, as they kept bailing the Nets out with one bad call after another. I call it like I see it -- the Pacers are probably a notch above the Raptors on the NBA pegging order and got the calls the other night, but tonight the big market Nets got a huge helping hand from the officials.

Roy Hibbert, on the other hand, continues to struggle. It's not really a slump anymore if it has lasted the entire season. This is as good as he'll be, barring some miracle. He was absolutely abused -- ABUSED -- by Brook Lopez, who made Hibbert look slow and inept at times on his way to a game-high 25 points. Hibbert managed 12 points, 10 rebounds and 3 blocks, but shot a horrendous 5-18 from the field.

Jeff Pendergraph was the highlight for the Pacers. JP had his best game of the season with 14 points and 10 rebounds in just 17 minutes. He had the energy all night and I wonder why Frank Vogel didn't go with him more with the game on the line.

The Pacers are feeling understandably fatigued and cannot get to the All-Star break fast enough. That brilliant offense they showed over the past couple of weeks disappeared tonight as they shot just 34.4% from the field. Next up is Charlotte at home on Wednesday, and it will be a great opportunity to get back on track. We might even see Danny Granger's first appearance of the season, if rumors are to be believed. The Pacers need his offense badly.

After such a stellar stretch, the Indiana Pacers were due for a letdown game, and boy did they throw it away against the Toronto Raptors, losing 100-98 in overtime and snapping their 15-game home winning streak. And full credit to the Raptors too, for never giving up and fighting through till the end despite getting some pretty dubious calls against them.

What happened was this: the Pacers, who led most of the way, had a 4 point lead in regulation with 10 seconds to go. It should have been game over at that stage as long as they could knock down free throws. Instead, they allowed Amir Johnson to get a couple of offensive rebounds off a Rudy Gay miss (the Raptors were huge on the offensive glass with 17 for the night) for the putback. Two point game.

Instead of calling a timeout, David West throws a boneheaded pass down the court that gets picked off by Gay. Amir Johnson misses with a little over a second to go, but grabs his own rebound -- again -- and lets go of the ball virtually at the buzzer. The ball drops in. Overtime.

The Pacers, playing their fourth game in five nights, looked pretty gassed, and they threw away plenty of opportunities in OT. George Hill misses a free throw that would have given the Pacers a 1-point lead with 1:30 left in OT. David West then just throws it out of bounds with the game tied and 50 seconds to go. And on what should have been the Pacers' final offensive possession, George Hill dribbles the ball out of bounds on a drive, giving the Raptors 10 seconds for their final shot. 

Rudy Gay delivered with a stepback jumper against Paul George, and the Pacers had 1.7 seconds left for a final shot, but George's leaner went in-and-out off the glass. Game over. Raptors win, Pacers blow a perfect chance to extend their 5-game winning streak and 15-game home winning streak and fall to 31-20.

It's a disappointing loss, for sure, and it's one they can certainly learn from.