The Indiana Pacers were on a high heading into their game with the Jazz in Utah.  They were on a four-game road winning streak, having beaten the Miami Heat, the LA Lakers, and were coming off a solid victory against the Sacramento Kings the night before.  Even though they had a record of just 9-7, the Pacers were causing a buzz -- their fans are excited and people are starting to notice them.

Well, tonight was a terrific reality check, as the Pacers got smashed by the red hot Jazz, 110-88.  They fell behind 35-17 in the first quarter and never recovered.  Despite getting within 3 at the start of the second half, it never felt like the Jazz were seriously threatened. 

Deron Williams tore up the Pacers with 24 points, 16 assists and 0 turnovers.  All Jefferson dominated the paint with 17 and 10.  Andre Kirilenko had 18 and 7, including 5 on the offensive end.  It seemed like all the bounces went their way, but it was probably just because the Jazz hustled harder.

I know this was a game few expected the Pacers to win.  Some said this was a schedule loss, as the Pacers were playing their third road game in a row and it was the second game of a back-to-back -- plus they were up against the Jazz, who were on a six-game winning streak and held one of the best records in the NBA.  And Salt Lake is always one of the toughest places to play.

However, I think the way they lost this game was a good wake up call.  Yes, the Pacers are improving and exceeding expectations, but let's not get ahead of ourselves.  As coach Jim O'Brien said after the game: "The Jazz are right in the hunt in the West and we're trying to get a playoff spot.  There's a world of difference between their franchise and ours right now."

The Pacers may surprise good teams every now and then, but there will be times when a team is simply too good for them.  Tonight their opponent was one such team.

The Jazz are on fire at the moment.  Deron Williams was always going to give the Pacers fits.  He was too quick for Brandon Rush, who started the game guarding him, and he was too big and strong for Darren Collison.  The Pacers had no answers for Williams as he collected 9 points and 9 assists in the first quarter alone. 

But the rest of the Jazz were also outplaying the lethargic Pacers.  Kirilenko spun around Granger for a two handed jam in the first quarter and kept beating the Pacers to the offensive glass.  Al Jefferson was hitting long range jumpers.  Actually, every Jazz was hitting their jumpers tonight.  Forget the Pacers -- I doubt any team in the NBA could have beaten the Jazz tonight.

For the Pacers, Darren Collison led the way with 16 points, his quickness and aggresiveness giving Jazz defenders problems at times, but he also had 6 of the Pacers' 18 turnovers.  Hibbert had 15 and 5, and Rush had 15.  Granger, coming off a season high 37, only had 14 on 6 of 16 shooting.

Having said that, the Pacers remain on track for a playoff berth.  They won't beat everyone every night, but they're still a much better team than people expected at the start of the season.  Their next game is against the struggling Phoenix Suns (if you can call 8-9 struggling) and it's the last game of their road trip.  It will be the second game of a back-to-back for the Suns, so maybe this can be a schedule win for the Pacers as they strive to improve their record to 10-8.

They've shown they can beat the good teams on the road, and now the Indiana Pacers are showing that they can take care of business against lesser teams too.

Danny Granger scored a season high 37 points on 12-19 shooting, continuing his hot streak against Sacramento as the Pacers overcame the Kings, 107-98.  Roy Hibbert again is demonstrating his candidacy for Most Improved with a solid 16 point, 8 rebound and 4 assist performance, and Darren Collison chipped in with 17 points and 6 assists as the Pacers raised their road record to an impressive 5-2 and overall record to 9-7.

Last season's ROY Tyreke Evans returned from illness and had 16 points, 9 assists and 7 rebounds, but also 6 turnovers.  Beno Udrih was also hot, leading the way with 24 points for Sacramento.  The guy the Pacers couldn't stop was rookie DeMarcus Cousins, who came off the bench to power his way to a 20 point, 8 rebound night, almost single-handedly bringing the Kings back from a 16-point third quarter deficit. 

The Kings played very well in the first quarter.  The Pacers raced out to a 6-0 lead, but the Kings would score the next 9 points in a see-sawing first half that saw the two teams tied at 52 all at the break.  However, the Pacers would tighten up the defense at the start of the second half and race to a 78-60 lead, punctuated by a sick one-handed alley oop from TJ Ford to Josh McRoberts.

This was a scary game for the Pacers because once again, they were due for a letdown after stunning the Lakers just a couple of nights before.  The Kings were struggling and I'm sure they looked at the Pacers as a team they could beat.  But good on the Pacers for sticking to their run and gun game, pushing the ball up on every possession and getting good open looks.  Fortunately they managed to knock some of them down and get the win.

Some observations:

• Granger had the big night, but I'm starting to think Hibbert is the one with the best chance of making the All-Star team from this Pacers squad.

• Good to see O'Brien playing Collison instead of Ford down the stretch tonight, and it paid off.  The kid's gotta learn to deal with the pressure some time, and sooner rather than later.

• Solomon Jones and TJ Ford having both pleasantly surprising seasons thus far.  Jones has been active at both ends of the floor, hustling for loose balls, even though he has drawn a few fouls in the process (he had 5 today and struggled, but did the best he could with a rampaging Cousins).  Ford had zero points today, but he pushed the tempo and has settled into a comfortable back up role behind Collison.  As Collison develops, Ford will get fewer minutes, but perhaps it will raise his trade value before the February deadline and allow AJ Price to come back into the mix.

• Mike Dunleavy is getting stacks of open shots but failing to knock them down.  Not sure if it is his knees or just bad luck.  We know he can get it going (as we saw against Denver in the freakish third quarter) but so far he's struggled.

• Brandon Rush continues to be aggressive at both ends and is starting to look like a much more confident player, kind of like the one that torched teams at the end of his first two seasons.  His shot isn't always going down (6 points on 2-8 shooting today), but I like what I'm seeing, especially when he takes it to the rim.

• I love how everyone is starting to notice this team.  Kobe apparently said the Pacers were definitely a playoff team, as did Stan Van Gundy when his Magic beat the Pacers last week.  The commentators in the Lakers and Kings games all kept saying that the Pacers are a good team. 

Coming up, an ultra tough one for the Pacers against the Utah Jazz.  Not going to be an easy one to win.  To me, if they can somehow pull out the victory, it'll be even more impressive than their wins against the Lakers and the Heat, especially since the Jazz are on a roll and it'll be the second game of a back-to-back.

As evidenced tonight, Collison and Ford struggle with bigger PGs, and they don't come much bigger these days than Deron Williams, so it will have to be a total team effort on the defensive end.  Paul Millsap might match up against Danny Granger, so that'll be a terrific contest, and Hibbert will have his hands full with Al Jefferson.

And the road doesn't get much easier after that, as the Pacers finish their 4-game West coast road trip against Steve Nash and the Phoenix Suns, who are never easy to beat.

Go Pacers!

Let's hope this is not a jinx.

With road wins in Miami and LA, plus close losses at home against the Thunder and Magic, the 8-7 Indiana Pacers have risen an impressive 9 places from 20 to 11 in the ESPN's weekly Power Rankings.

This is what Marc Stein of ESPN had to say:

Road wins over the Heat and Lakers? Sandwiched around a gut-wrenching OT loss to OKC? Throw in the recent narrow L to Orlando, and you get one the finest 3-2 stretches in the nine-season existence of this committee.

Just imagine where they could have been had they won those close ones against the Magic and Thunder.

More impressive though, in my humble opinion, was the Pacers' rise in ESPN's other ranking, Hollinger's Power Rankings, which is based solely on a statistical model and not subjective views.  Amazingly, the Pacers are ranked the 9th best team in the NBA according to those rankings.  They are one place ahead of the Miami Heat and just one behind the Orlando Magic.

Again, can I remind people that this is a team that most experts predicted to be in the bottom 5, if not the bottom 3, in the entire NBA?

To put things into perspective, the Pacers are currently 2nd in the Central Division behind the Bulls, 5th in the Eastern Conference (2.5 games ahead of 9th place Milwaukee and 3.5 games behind equal first place Orlando and Boston), and 12th in the league overall.

What has caused this sudden improvement?  It's impossible to point to any one particular thing, but there are many factors at play here.

It all starts with defense.  Fuelled by Danny Granger's new desire to play D (after his playing time diminished on Team USA over the summer), the entire team has caught on, and are no longer content simply outshooting the other team.  The Pacers are currently 8th in the NBA in points allowed (96.3) and 16th in points scored (99.9), which gives them a point differential of +3.6, which is 8th best in the league.

Compare this to last season, where the Pacers scored 100.8 per game but allowed the other team to score 103.8 (for a point differential of -3.0).

More telling is perhaps the defensive FG%, where the Pacers are just second in the NBA behind Utah, allowing their opponents to hit just 0.428 of their shots from the field.

The Pacers still need to control the ball a bit better -- they are averaging 15.3 turnovers per game and probably need to get that down to around 13-14 per game to be more competitive.  However, on the whole, this is a team that can still win even when they are not hitting their shots, as we saw against the Lakers last night.

Individually, the players, as TJ Ford said, are starting to believe in Jim O'Brien more.  I'm still not 100% convinced, but there have definitely been fewer calls for O'Brien to be fired this season than previous ones. 

They've got a growing beast in Roy Hibbert, a rising PG in Darren Collison (who I believe can be a lot better than what he has shown as far -- as soon as he can be a little less erratic O'Brien will give him more miniutes), a new and improved Brandon Rush (who has been a LOT more aggressive this season whenever he touches the ball), hustlers in McRoberts, Hansbrough, and (when he's healthy) Foster, streaky shooters in Dunleavy and Posey, and of course, Granger is still Granger, but just better defensively.  And I haven't even mentioned the rejuvenated play of TJ Ford and promising players in AJ Price, Paul George and Lance Stephenson (and what about Dahntay Jones and Solomon Jones?).  Everyone on this team has a role and they are playing it better and better each day.

Notably, apart from Granger (who averages 37.7 minutes per game), everyone on this team is averaging less than 31 minutes a game.  This will definitely help the wear and tear as the season progresses.

I'm rambling here, but forgive me for the excitement I'm sure many Pacers fans are feeling right now.  As I said, there's a good chance the Pacers will fall behind 0.500 again with some tough road games coming up, but if the Pacers can be just a game or two under 0.500 by the end of December, they will be hard to keep out of the playoffs.

Unbelievable.  Two nights after a heartbreaking OT loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder at home, the Pacers went into LA's Staples Center and shocked the defending champs Lakers, 95-92, raising their record to 8-7 (including 4-2 on the road).  If the Pacers can just find a way to win at home (where they are 4-5), they'll be heading right into the playoffs.

I know it's still VERY early in the season, but Pacers fans ought to be excited.  They haven't seen a team this promising since Reggie Miller retired.

This was a game the Pacers really shouldn't have had any chance of winning as they shot horribly, going 43% from the field, including a horrible 4-23 (17.4%) from 3-point range (most of them wide open), plus 15-19 from the line -- and yet they somehow scrapped their way to a victory. 

This was a true team effort, led by Roy Hibbert's incredible 24 points, 12 rebounds and 6 assists (thoroughly outplaying Pau Gasol), including a final emphatic slam in the dying seconds to ensure that the Lakers must score on a 3-pointer to tie.  Kobe came up short twice and the Pacers escaped with a win.

Speaking of Kobe, he was simply unstoppable tonight, despite tough defense by Brandon Rush (11 points) and Danny Granger (18 points).  Kobe had a season high 41 points on just 14-33 shooting, but he single handedly kept the Lakers in the game for most of the fourth quarter. 

However, Darren Collison (14 points) and TJ Ford (5 points and 5 assists) continued to push the tempo on every possession and Josh McRoberts (4 points, 6 boards -- 3 offensive -- and 4 blocks) and Solomon Jones (9 points, 7 rebounds -- 5 offensive) hustled for big rebounds and repeat possessions to help the Pacers stay in the lead for the entire second half.

The Lakers raced out to a 26-23 lead after the first quarter, but the Pacers went ahead 51-45 at the half, then extended their lead to as much as 14 in the third before Kobe took over.  The Pacers missed a few key free throws but managed to hold the lead through some tremendous hustle and poised baskets down the stretch.  The team and their fans should be very proud.

I'm usually very pessimistic when it comes to the Pacers but seriously, Pacers fans, this team is for real.  It'll be interesting to see where they end up on ESPN's new Power Rankings tomorrow.

The Indiana Pacers looked like they were heading towards a three-game winning streak, but instead, Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant put the Thunder on their backs and rallied for a nail-biting 110-106 OT victory in Conseco Fieldhouse.

The Pacers were up by as much as 14 points in the third, but the Thunder, led by Westbrook's career high 43 points, shaved nine points off that lead before heading into the final quarter.  Durant scored 11 of his 25 points in the final two minutes of regulation and overtime, including some big ones down the stretch, to seal the win for the Thunder.

For the Pacers, Danny Granger led the way with 30, Roy Hibbert had 19 and 10, and Josh McRoberts had 13 and 8 as all five Pacers starters finished in double figures.

I'll admit, this was another game where I had the feeling that the opponent was going to come all the way back.  Westbrook was simply on fire and unstoppable, getting to the basket and the line at will, and Durant felt eerily similar in OT.  Every time the Pacers went up by few points, the Thunder would score off a tough basket or get a three-point play to get right back into it.  Both Westbrook and Durant had big three-point plays (Westbrook missed the free throw) to keep the Thunder in the game while Darren Collison and Brandon Rush both missed big free throws that could have potentially altered the outcome.

The loss was definitely disappointing, but I hope it's another one of those "character-building" losses, like the ones they had against the Bucks and the Magic earlier in the season.  These were games that a more confident, experienced team would have won, and the Pacers can only learn from these mistakes and become a better team.  They should look at the Thunder, cellar dwellars from a few years back, and now considered to be one of the top teams in the West and a future title contender (if not already).  The Thunder would have gone through their fair share of disappointing losses in those early years, which is what made them strong enough to come back and take this one from the Pacers.

Knowing this year's team, the loss won't keep them down for too long.  They'll keep fighting and keep improving.

It doesn't get much easier from here.  Make or break time is well and truly here, despite how early it is in the season.  The Pacers now fall to 7-7 and head on the road now to face the two-time defending champs, the LA Lakers.