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.

DJ Augustin for MVP!

Sign of a true fan. Crap all over a player when he struggles, sing his praises when he delivers.

DJ, starting for the second consecutive game for the Pacers at point guard in place of the injured Geoge Hill, rose to the occasion again, setting another season high with 18 points to go with 6 assists in 37 minutes as the Pacers allowed the Wizards to come almost all the way back from 17 points down before holding them off for an 89-81 victory.

Augustin was 9-10 from the free throw line, including 6-6 down the stretch (the Pacers' final 6 points, in fact) as Bradley Beal went nuts and almost stole the game by making three huge shots just when the game appeared to be over. Despite looking lost all season, for the last two games at least, Augustin has been huge for the Pacers and finally looks like he belongs on the court.

Is it because he wasn't used to coming off the bench or playing limited minutes? Who knows, but if George Hill is back for the next game against the Celtics without being 100%, it might not be a bad idea to let DJ start and allow Hill to spot him off the bench if Rajon Rondo starts killing them, which he probably will. The Celtics have lost four straight , making them a very motivated and dangerous team.

Anyway, Paul George actually had a monster game with 29 points, 14 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals. Hibbert scored in doubt digits for once with 13 and shot 6-11 from the floor, but he only had 4 rebounds and played just 24 minutes because of foul trouble.

The Pacers are now 19-13 for the season, which doesn't look too bad considering Danny Granger is still out, Roy Hibbert continues to disappoint and the bench is still wildly inconsistent.

By the way, the NBA really loves to screw the Pacers over. Remember that home game against the Bulls that was canceled because of a snowstorm? Well, the powers that be have rescheduled the game for Feb. 4, meaning, wait for it...the Pacers play 3 games in 3 nights and 4 games in 5 nights.

Not exactly a soft part of the schedule either. The Pacers will play the Bulls after Miami and before Atlanta, and will then travel to Philly the very next day. On the other hand, the Bulls get a day off after playing Atlanta before facing the Pacers, then get another 2 days off before heading to Denver.

Thanks for nothing, NBA.

What a great way to end 2012.

Playing like a turd spread over stale bread all season, DJ Augustin got the call to start at PG tonight over George Hill, who sat out with a groin/leg problem, apparently. The move must have sent chills down the spines of every Pacers fan, because Augustin hadn't even scored more than 8 points in a single this season going into the game, and was shooting less than 27% from the field. That's right, 27%.

Perhaps Augustin's New Year's resolution is to simply "be awesome," because he certainly produced tonight against the Grizzlies with 17 points and 6 assists on 4-9 shooting as the Pacers came from 7 points down at the end of the third to pull out an 88-83 win. The Pacers move back atop the Central Division at 18-13, two games behind Atlanta for the no. 3 seed and 4 games behind Eastern Conference leaders the Miami Heat.

One of their best wins of the season and a crucial one against a winning team for once, and it was all because of DJ. Well, not exactly, as Paul George had 21, 6 and 5, David West had 13 and 9 and Lance Stephenson had 10 and 7, but on this night let's just say it was all DJ. Finally.

Let's hope he can keep it up in 2013 because the Pacers can really use it.

You could tell from the way the Pacers have been playing that they needed a bit of a wake up call. They've been getting it done against poor teams, but just barely.

Against a team like the Atlanta Hawks, missing Josh Smith or not, the Pacers were going to be in for a rough night. And I was right. The Pacers got within 3 in the fourth quarter but it felt like the Hawks were never seriously threatened as the Hawks overpowered the Pacers to a 109-100 win.

The loss snapped a 4-game winning streak for the Pacers and put them back to 17-13 for the season.

It was ugly. The Hawks scored their 109 points on 55% shooting. David West did all he could to keep the Pacers in the game with 29 points, including two 3-pointers for some reason, and Paul George again flirted with a triple-double with 18, 9 and 8, but he also had 5 turnovers.

The big news was Roy 'Max Contract' Hibbert, who...wait for it...had 0 points and 1 rebound in 21 minutes while getting dominated by Al Horford and Zaza Pachulia. Wrist injury or not, it was embarrassing, and Roy didn't even play down the stretch as Frank Vogel favored Tyler Hansbrough, who took out about 6 players from both sides, including teammate Lance Stephenson. Lance had been playing well (13 points, 5 rebounds) until Psycho-T elbowed him in the head in the fourth quarter, sending him straight to the locker room.

Anyway, I'm sure this is a game the Pacers would like to forget. Their next game is on New Year's Eve against the Memphis Grizzlies. Time to step it up a notch.

Not much to say. Pacers were killing the Suns early, racing out to a 14-point lead at the half. Then they fell asleep and the Suns came roaring back. But Pacers eventually hold on for a 97-91 victory.

Again, lots of problems but enough to get it done against a lottery team. That's 4 in a row and 17-12 for the season.

George Hill led the way with 22 points, Paul George had 15 and David West 14. Lance Stephenson chipped in with 10 points, 9 rebounds and 5 assists in a solid effort.

This type of effort isn't going to be enough against a good team like the Hawks, whom the Pacers will face tomorrow night.