I could have sworn I wrote this one already but for some reason it disappeared.

I'm not going to rewrite the whole thing again.

David West returned to beast mode to post his first career triple-double with 14 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists as the Pacers held off the Charlotte Bobcats 96-88 without Paul George, who sat out with an illness.

That's all there is to know.

I was worried about this game even though the Knicks were without their top scorer, Carmelo Anthony, who was serving a one-game suspension for trying to "talk" to Kevin Garnett after the Knicks lost to the Celtics. The Knicks still had JR Smith, and they still had Amare Stoudemire, Tyson Chandler, Jason Kidd and Steve Novak. On paper, it looked like bad matchups everywhere for Indiana.

But the Pacers buckled down once again and showed why they are currently the best defensive team in the league, holding the Knicks to a season low 76 points on 34.8% shooting, including 4-20 from three-point range (and two of those shots came in the final two minutes as the Knicks tried to make a comeback).

The Pacers only scored 81 points themselves, but they are the second lowest scoring team in the NBA (just ahead of the lowly Wizards), so it was nothing unusual. Paul George led the way (again) with 24 points and 11 rebounds, plus 5 assists and 6 HUGE steals. The unsung hero tonight was Ian Mahinmi, who finally started hitting some shots to finish with 13 points on 6-7 shooting to be the only other player in double digits for Indiana.

David West struggled again and is officially in a slump, but he battled hard and managed to not pick up a technical despite getting about a zillion bad calls against him. Roy Hibbert was in and out of the line up with back spasms, and George Hill played with bronchitis. When you also take into account the fact that the Pacers also didn't have their usual to scorer in Danny Granger, it's arguable that neither team really got a lucky break tonight with missing players.

The Pacers are now 22-14 and will be looking for their first four-game winning streak of the season when they take on the Bobcats in the final game of their four-game home stand. Remember, the Pacers have already lost against the Bobcats once, by a single point in the second game of the season. But that was when the Pacers were struggling and the Bobcats were playing relatively well. It will be interesting to see how much the Pacers have progressed and the Bobcats have regressed since then. If the Pacers are serious about challenging the Heat and the Knicks this season they have to put away the Bobcats in impressive fashion. A loss will represent a huge step back.

Knocking them out of a regular season game at home isn't quite the same as knocking them out of the playoffs, but the Pacers should nevertheless be very happy with their performance last tonight after topping the defending champs 87-77 in Indiana.

They were able to do it without Danny Granger, the team's top scorer over the past five seasons (as well as with a sick and ineffective George Hil)l, because of Paul George, who exploded in the second half and finished with 29 points and 11 rebounds while "holding" Lebron James to a "quiet" 21 points, 10 rebounds and 7 turnovers.

The Pacers started out strong before Dwyane Wade took over in the second quarter, giving Pacers fans flashbacks to game 6 of last year's conference semifinals when D-Wade poured in 41 to send the Pacers home for the summer. Wade had 23 points in the first half in this game and was practically unstoppable but only had 7 points in the second half as Lance Stephenson did a great job of locking him down.

Speaking of Lance, he has proven himself to be a valuable member of the team. I dumped on this kid as much as anyone else through his troubles, but "Born Ready" has shown that he is finally ready to contribute on a nightly basis. He had 7 points early before foul trouble landed him on the bench for most of the first half, and had two massive three-pointers in the third quarter to put the Pacers back up on top after the Heat looked like they were going to start running away with it.

It was, in the end, a total team effort. David West hasn't been very "beast" lately, but his 14 points and 11 boards, including 5 on the offensive end, was key for the Pacers. Roy Hibbert, of course, struggled wth his shot again, but finished with 6 points and 14 rebounds, including 9 offensive.

In fact, it was probably the offensive rebounding and second chance points that allowed the Pacers to hold on in the end. The Pacers were +19 against the Heat on the glass and grabbed 22 offensive rebounds, the most Miami has given up this season.

And don't for a second think that the Heat were not taking this game seriously. Lebron said they were getting ready for the game because the Pacers were saying that they were the better team in the playoffs last year. The Heat's big three actually was pretty ready, but their bench really stunk.

The Pacers' bench, on the other hand, didn't stink as bad as they usually do, outscoring their counterparts 25-8. DJ Augustin had another solid game with increased minutes due to Hill's illness, dishing out 8 assists and closing yet another game out with impeccable free throw shooting down the stretch. Ian Mahinmi has been up and down and couldn't hit a jump shot on the night, but his size and defensive presence was a huge reason why the Heat scored a season low 77 points. I'm finally beginning to see his value.

As for Gerald Green, he didn't shoot or defend particularly well, but he had a couple of jaw-dropping alley-oops (one was a lay-up) and a ridiculous, out-of-this-world rejection on Mario Chalmers on the fast break. He is what he is -- unreliable but spectacular.

Anyway, with the Hawks losing to the Wolves tonight, the 21-14 Pacers have sneaked up into the third seed. They will play the New York Knicks tomorrow night at home with Reggie Miller calling the plays on national TV. The Pacers catch another break as the Knicks will be without Carmelo Anthony, who will be serving his one game suspension for trying to "talk" to Kevin Garnett after their game the other night. The Knicks are also apparently easing Amare Stoudemire back into playing shape and will limit his minutes, so the Pacers really have no excuse for this one.

PS: Coach Frank Vogel received an undisclosed contract extension. Good for him. He has earned it.

See, I told you the Pacers would bounce back.

After failing in to chances earlier on in the season, the Indiana Pacers finally got one against the Milwaukee Bucks. This home win came just after the Pacers got smashed in Boston, so it must be a good feeling, though I doubt they will celebrate too much considering they next face the Heat and the Knicks.

Tonight was Roy Hibbert's night. He put up his best performance of the season with a dominant 20 points, 15 rebounds and 5 blocks, shooting 50% from the floor. The most impressive stat? The fact that 11 of the 15 rebounds were on the offensive end.

George Hill returned to the starting lineup after missing three games with injury and played well, putting up 14 points, 8 rebounds and 4 assists, while Lance Stephenson and David West added 10 points apiece. Paul George finally fell down to earth a little by scoring only 8 points, the second game in a row where he has failed to break double digits after putting together a string of 15 consecutive dougle-digit scoring games. He and David West (who is shooting 25% the last three games) are kinda in a slump right now, which is not good considering they have been the two best players for the Pacers so far this season. Fortunately, the rest of the team has stepped up.

Right now, the Pacers are 20-14 and not looking too bad. The rest of January is going to be pretty tough though, with two road trips of 3 and 4 games coming up and just a single home game against Houston in between them. If they can weather the storm, February will be a lot better, with 9 home games against just 2 road games.

Yes, the Pacers got beaten pretty badly by the Celtics (94-75), but I wasn't too cut up about it. It was, honestly, just one of those games.

The Celtics commentators will praise the Boston defense for holding the Pacers to 31.8% shooting, the truth is that the Pacers simply missed a lot of open shots. Nothing was falling. Not even the free throws. The Pacers actually executed well early on and got a bunch of open shots, but they just couldn't hit anything.

Eventually, the confidence started to drop and it just kept dropping, resulting in the final score line. Even when they were getting pummeled the Pacers hustled hard and kept crashing the boards. Their inability to stop Kevin Garnett (who was ejected in the fourth for a flagrant 2 on Tyler Hansbrough) and Rajon Rondo was expected, but the turnovers from weak passes did hurt.

Anyway, the now 19-14 Pacers will look to move on quickly with a home against the Bucks, whom the Pacers have lost against twice already this season. I'm sure they will bounce back.