The Indiana Pacers appeared to have momentum heading into their showdown with the Denver Nuggets at Bankers Life Fieldhouse, so it's disappointing to see them crumple down the stretch and hand the Nuggets a 92-89 victory.

I had hoped for JaVale McGee to score some baskets for the Pacers but instead he dominated Roy Hibbert, who was kept to 10 and 9 on 3-10 shooting (though that's becoming the norm for Roy these days). Wasn't a whole lot to dislike apart from the loss and the stinky bench (again). Paul George led the way again with 22 points in yet another encouraging sign that he is taking a step forward in his game, while David West continued to be beast with 18 and 11. The reserves only gave the Pacers 12 points, and 9 of those came from Sam Young of all people.

Whatever.

Next game, the Thunder in Oklahoma City. Could get ugly.

The Indiana Pacers were ready for a letdown game after an impressive 3-1 road trip out West. But instead, the team seized the opportunity to go over 0.500 for the first time since they started the season 2-1, and defeated the Portland Trailblazers 99-92 to improve to 10-9 for the season including 5-2 at home.

Observations:

-  The Pacers gave their fans another scare when they looked like they were going to squander an 18-point 4th quarter lead; it got down to 4 with more than 5 minutes to go before the Pacers got their act together.

- I bag the Pacers bench a lot so tonight they must receive some credit. Psycho-T was huge in the first half with 10 points and Mahinmi took another step forward with a solid 12-points-without-a-miss performance. Gerald Green hit some timely shots. DJ Augustin scored a point.

- Paul George backed up his 34-point performance last night with 22 points, 8 rebounds and 5 assists. Way to go. Now do it again the next game.

- David West continues his beastly ways: 16 points (8-11 shooting), 10 rebounds and one big jumper to keep the Blazers at bay down the stretch. Whenever he takes a mid-range shot it looks and feels like it's gonna be all net.

- Roy Hibbert really showed the Blazers what they missed out on when the Pacers matched their max contract...NOT! Well, kind of. Hibbert had 10 points and 7 rebounds in 29 minutes to go with 3 blocks, but shot just 3-13 from the field. Really ugly misses too. If Roy was on the same contract he was on last year then tonight's performance would have been great. But he's not.

- This Damian Lillard kid from Portland, who led all scorers with 23, is sick. When can the Pacers draft a player like him?

Next up, the Denver Nuggets on Friday night at Bankers Life. I think they're an underrated team and I have a feeling Ty Lawson will have a big one. Hopefully JaVale McGee does something stupid and the Pacers win.

After chucking up a turd in the last game against the Warriors in his last game, Paul George came to play tonight against the Bulls in Chicago, putting up an efficient 34 points on 14-25 shooting to go with 9 rebounds as the Pacers survived with an 80-76 victory.

Importantly, the win puts the Pacers back to 0.500 at 9-9, which puts them in a three-way tie for first place in the Central division along with the Bulls and the Bucks. It also ends an unexpectedly successful 3-1 road trip, showing perhaps the Pacers are back on track for the season. Maybe.

It was again an ugly, low-scoring and low-percentage game between two strong defensive teams. The Bulls had been struggling somewhat without Derrick Rose and recently lost Richard Hamilton to injury as well, so I guess you could say the Pacers caught a bit of a break. They also caught a break on what was effectively the Bulls' final offensive possession of the game. With the Pacers up 78-76, Luol Deng drove down the basline and was challenged by Roy Hibbert. Hibbert went pretty much straight up and Deng flailed his arms hoping for a call, but no whistle came. That was essentially the ball game as David West grabbed the ball, got fouled, and calmly sank two freebies to ice it.

Speaking of West (who has been BEAST lately), he had an off night shooting the ball and finished with just 10 points, but the dude was still huge down the stretch with some nifty passing and the aforementioned free throws. It's frightening to think that he will be an unrestricted free agent at the end of this year and no one knows if he intends to stay. If he leaves the Pacers might as well blow things up and start over from the bottom.

Two more things. First, Roy Hibbert's defense continues to be strong, and he showed glimpses in the third quarter that he can still be a solid offensive player if he gets the ball at the right spots. His confidence appears to be returning but he's still missing too many shots right up at the rim -- he should be making these in his sleep. It's inexcusable for any player, let alone a 7-2 NBA player on a max contract.

Secondly, the bench continues to be a scary bag of vomit. Every starter, including Hibbert, played at least 34 minutes tonight, with Paul George looking really tired by the end after playing 41 minutes. Every time the Pacers went to the bench the Bulls made a run. It's ridiculous.

When Danny Granger returns it will shift Lance Stephenson to the bench, instantly making him the team's best reserve, which makes me shudder just thinking about it. Ian Mahinmi is showing flashes of decency but Gerald Green remains all over the shop and DJ Augustin has descended beyond rock bottom. Tyler Hansbrough's shooting is not that far behind either.

I love watching the Pacers starters play, but if they keep playing so many minutes I'm sure they're going to wear down before the season ends and it's not going to be pretty. I think a trade of some sort is needed eventually because they can't wait forever for the bench to live up to its potential.

Can the Indiana Pacers ever win a championship with George Hill as their starting point guard? The answer to the question is debatable, but judging from the five-year, $40 million contract they gave him over the summer, Indiana’s chief decision-makers believed it was a resounding yes.

After finding themselves a few bounces of the ball away from an Eastern Conference Finals appearance last year, Indiana chose to anoint Hill as their point guard of the future. But after analyzing his first month or so of play this season, they may want to re-think things.

Regardless of whether or not Hill is worth that type of money, he’s underperformed this year, and Pacers fans have a right to be concerned. Right now they should probably be asking themselves a difficult series of questions: Is George Hill a finished product? And can he get better?

A couple months ago, Basketball Prospectus projected that George Hill would shoot 37.9% on three-pointers and average a true shooting percentage of 57.3% for the 2012-13 season. So far he’s made just 18 of 66 attempted three-pointers (27.3%) and has a 50.4% true shooting percentage.

The Pacers may have expected even greater numbers than what Basketball Prospectus forecast, and his poor play so far has created a storm the team is struggling to fight through. They need Hill to make others better while also keeping opposing defenses honest on the perimeter, but so far he’s not doing a good job in either area. Nor has he shown that he is capable of stretching the floor with a shot or providing effective playmaking ability off the dribble to draw the defense’s attention

According to Hoopdata.com he’s making 29% of all his shots from 10-23 feet, and only 1.9 of his 5.3 assists per game are leading to easy shots at the rim, which ranks behind Steve Blake, Brandon Knight, and Mario Chalmers.

It feels like everyone on Indiana’s roster except David West (and, believe it or not, Lance Stephenson) has been disappointing this season. To solely blame George Hill and pick him apart as an underachieving, below-average point guard wouldn’t be fair. Danny Granger’s injury — which unexpectedly boosted everyone else’s offensive responsibilities — is a legitimate excuse for his depleted performance. But Hill’s numbers should still be examined as what they are: a near nosedive relative to projections.

The Pacers are in somewhat of a hopeless situation right now, competing for a title with no superstar on the roster. As their starting point guard in a league overcrowded with historically great players at the position, George Hill needs to first improve the areas we expected him to be half decent in before upgrading everything else. His average of less than six assists per game isn’t scaring anybody.

He’s 26 years old, an age that typically offers little room for improvement on an overall player’s skill-set, but this is still his first full season as a full-time starting point guard. It’s a unique situation. He’s averaging six more minutes a game than his previous career high, and looking at it from that angle opens up the possibility that Hill is still adjusting to the most important role of his career, and all the expanded duties that come with it.

Hill has the trust of an organization burdened with a high expectations, an important factor that shouldn’t go understated. He is steady and versatile, displaying competence at both guard positions, and showing the stones to take and make big, difficult, pressure packed shots — as we saw in his game-winning shots against the Raptors in the season opener and against the Lakers on Nov. 27.  (This season he’s already attempted nine game-tying or go-ahead shots with less than 24 seconds left in the game.)

The Pacers offense has managed 87.7 points per 100 possessions when Hill takes a breather—a deplorably low number—but it rises to 97.9 when he plays. Winning a championship is a team-wide effort, but any hopes for a long postseason should be eliminated unless Hill makes more shots and expands his overall offensive repertoire.

Michael is a writer on ESPN’s TrueHoop Network and ScoreBig.com. You can follow him on Twitter @MichaelVPina

Not much to say. Golden State were just better.

102-93, but Pacers never really challenged in the fourth quarter. Fall to 8-9 overall and 2-1 on current 4-game road trip. Chicago coming up next.

Observations:

- David West still beast (23, 8, 4 on 10-16 shooting). Needs to teach Tyler Hansbrough how to start hitting midrange jumpers again. Psycho T was 0-5 and didn't score. Didn't he used to be automatic from 15 feet?

- Roy Hibbert playing better (15, 7, 5 blocks on 6-13 shooting). He's been horrible offensively all season but has been an anchor on defense. Max contract still burns.

- Paul George's worst game ever: ZERO points on 0-7 shooting. Way to go, PG.

- George Hill not a true point guard but he sure can score (19 points on 6-12 shooting).

- Pacers bench stinks. Whenever the starters go out, and in particular whenever Hansbrough comes in for West, I get ready for a run from the other team. It always happens. Hard to remember watching him this season that DJ Augustin was ever any good, and it's harder to envisage that he will ever be good again.

PS: In Dallas -- Darren Collison moved to the bench in favor of formerly retired, 164-year-old Derek Fisher. That's gotta hurt. Fisher was 1-8 with 2 points. But at least the Mavs beat the Pistons.