Paul George scored 27 points and the Indiana Pacers powered their way closer to the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference by beating the New York Knicks 125-91 on Wednesday night.

David West had 18 points and nine rebounds, and Lance Stephenson added 14 points for Indiana (33-21), which pulled within a half-game of the Knicks for second place in the East.

The Pacers shot 53 percent from the field, scored a season-high point total and had a season-best 28 assists against the Atlantic Division leaders. It was Indiana’s largest margin of victory this season and New York’s worst loss.

Tyson Chandler led New York with 19 points and 11 rebounds. Carmelo Anthony, the league’s No. 2 scorer, finished with 15 points on 7-for-21 shooting.

George, fresh off a strong performance in his first All-Star Game appearance, made 11 of 19 shots and grabbed eight rebounds.

New York was called for three individual technical fouls and a flagrant foul, and J.R. Smith was ejected…

New York shot just 33 percent in the first half. Anthony scored eight points on 4-for-10 shooting before the break.

– Reported by Cliff Brunt of the Associated Press

Paul George posted his first career triple-double with 23 points, 12 rebounds and a career-high 12 assists, and the Indiana Pacers snapped a two-game losing streak with a 101-77 rout of the Charlotte Bobcats on Wednesday night.

Tyler Hansbrough tied a season high with 19 points and grabbed 10 rebounds for the Pacers starting in place of David West, who was sidelined by an eye injury.

Byron Mullens led the Bobcats with 19 points and Gerald Henderson chipped in 14.

The first quarter started as a shootout with Indiana and Charlotte combining for 59 points on 55.6 percent shooting. The Pacers held a 30-29 lead after the first before limiting the Bobcats to 23 percent shooting (14-for-61) over the final three quarters.

George opened the game with a corner 3-pointer and finished the opening quarter with 11 points.

The Pacers stepped up on the defensive end in the second quarter, holding Charlotte without a field goal for nearly three minutes and to only 17 points in the quarter on 5-of-20 shooting. But Indiana’s offense didn’t fare any better with 19 points in the second.

– Reported by the Associated Press

Danny Granger’s return to the Indiana Pacers will have to wait at least another week.

Any chance of the team’s leading scorer returning to game action tonight at Bankers Life Fieldhouse against the Charlotte Bobcats was derailed by the flu-like symptoms.

Coach Frank Vogel said Granger’s injured left knee “responded well” to Tuesday’s practice, but Granger might not have played tonight anyway.

“He probably wouldn’t be quite ready yet if he wasn’t sick,” Vogel said after the morning practice.

– Reported by Curt Cavin of the Indianapolis Star

It was inevitable that they would form a bond. They both share a fondness for fishing. One played with and coached Kobe Bryant. The other was a fan of Bryant’s growing up and continues to admire his work ethic today.

With much in common, Indiana Pacers associate head coach Brian Shaw and swingman Paul George have developed a strong relationship marked by an open line of communication no matter whether the subject is positive or negative.

George also credits Shaw, along with head coach Frank Vogel, for helping him become an All Star in just his third year in the league.

“He’s really helped me out,” George said of Shaw. “He’s the one that gets on me. If I’m not playing well, if things aren’t going right, and he knows I’m the reason for it, he’ll let me hear about it.”

– Reported by Mike Wells of the Indianapolis Star

The son of basketball legend Larry Bird was arrested Sunday at Indiana University, said Chief Keith Cash of the Indiana University Police Department.

Connor Bird, 21, allegedly tried to hit his ex-girlfriend with a car. Bird faces multiple charges, Cash said, including battery with injury, criminal mischief, intimidation with a deadly weapon and possession of marijuana.

Trouble began, police said, after Bird and the ex-girlfriend got into a dispute Sunday at Bird’s Bloomington apartment. Bird threw a cell phone at the female, police said.

– Reported by Bill McCleery of the Indianapolis Star

Brooklyn figured out how to win without its most versatile offensive player Monday night.

Feed Brook Lopez early and often, keep Reggie Evans active on the glass and put the ball in Joe Johnson’s hands with the game on the line.

It may need to keep that formula a while longer.

Lopez scored 25 points, Evans grabbed 22 rebounds and Johnson tied the score with a 10-foot bank shot to force overtime before closing it out with four straight free throws to give the Nets an 89-84 victory—their first in six tries at Bankers Life Fieldhouse…

Brooklyn (30-22) needed every one of those plays to turn things around.

They came into Monday night with three losses in four games, including a 111-86 shellacking at home Sunday. They had lost five straight in Indianapolis, one of the best home teams in the league this season, and had been struggling badly to score, too. Plus, they were missing guard Deron Williams who was diagnosed with synovitis, an inflammation of the ankle joint linings. He received platelet rich plasma treatment on both ankles and isn’t expected to return to the floor until after the All-Star break.

But without Williams, the Nets stayed focused.

They had only 11 turnovers, forced the normally proficient Pacers to shoot just 34.4 percent, limited All-Star forward Paul George to five points on 1-of-10 shooting, and rallied late in regulation in a game that looked all but lost. Then, in overtime, the Nets refused to let this one slip away…

David West Indiana’s other big scorer, got poked in the eye by Lopez 60 seconds into the game. When he returned to start the second half, he didn’t look like himself. He was just 2 of 11 from the field with seven points and six rebounds and missed three straight midrange shots at the end of regulation, the last a 14-footer that bounced off the front of the rim as time expired…

George Hill led the Pacers with 22 points and six assists while Lance Stephenson and Jeff Pendergraph each had 14. It was a season-high for Pendergraph, whose previous best was six.

– Reported by Michael Marot of the Associated Press

The Pacers may get their fifth starter from last season — Danny Granger — back as early as Wednesday against the Charlotte Bobcats.

Granger, out all season with a left knee injury, went through his first full-court practice Sunday.

The Pacers must decide if it’s important for Granger to play before the All-Star break next weekend or wait until Feb. 20 against the New York Knicks.

Granger is staying in Indianapolis over the break to continue working out.

“I thought he looked great,” Pacers coach Frank Vogel said about Granger’s first extensive practice. “We have to see how his body responds, obviously. Have him go through another practice Tuesday and see where we’re at. I think it could be helpful to get his feet wet on Wednesday, but we have to make sure he feels good.”

– Reported by Mike Wells of the Indianapolis Star

The slogan goes, “In 49 states, it’s just basketball. But this is Indiana.” That must be a reference to the Indiana Hoosiers rather than the Pacers, who continue to be among the NBA bottom feeders in attendance. They are currently 26th in the NBA, averaging 14,592 fans in a building that seats 18,165.

The Pacers have had just four sellouts this season; opening night, both Miami games and against Chicago earlier this week.

While they have increased attendance by 1,320 fans a game from last season, that’s still not enough.

“It’s very disappointing,” Pacers guard and Indianapolis-native George Hill said. “The fans show up when we play the marquee teams, but they show up wearing the marquee team’s clothes. We feed off them. As much as we can get people there, the better off we’re going to be.”

– Reported by Mike Wells of the Indianapolis Star

Weary or not, the Indiana Pacers found the energy to beat the Philadelphia 76ers.

Roy Hibbert had 16 points and 13 rebounds to lead the Pacers to an 88-69 victory over Philadelphia on Wednesday night.

The Central Division-leading Pacers won their third game in three nights. Paul George, George Hill and David West each scored 15 for the Pacers, the only team to play back-to-back-to-back games this season.

“We got in here before the game and we just looked each other in the eyes, and I knew it,” George said of a team meeting. “I knew we had to go out, fight for each other, rely on each other and do everything possible to get a win.”

Indiana has won five in a row overall to move a season-best 12 games above .500. The Pacers snapped a three-game road losing streak and won for just the third time in 10 games away from home.

“We got ourselves up for this one in the locker room before the game,” West said. “We had to. A lot of guys didn’t have a lot out there physically, and we had to lean on each other. But we did that, we relied on defense, and slowing the game down, and we got it done.”

Jrue Holiday had 17 points for the Sixers, who saw their season-best three-game winning streak end.

Rookie Arnett Moultrie had a season-high 12 points and Lavoy Allen added 12.

– Reported by Rob Maaddi of the Associated Press

Indiana suddenly has a shooting touch to go with its tough defense.

The combination is just too much.

David West scored 29 points Monday night and All-Star Paul George finished with 21 points, 11 rebounds and five assists, leading the Pacers past Chicago 111-101 for a 14th consecutive home win and into a tie with the Bulls for the Central Division lead.

”We’re just playing together, every game I feel like we’re playing sharper,” West said. ”We still need to pick it up defensively, we’re slipping in that regard, but in terms of the offense and how we’re moving the ball and what we’re looking for, it’s just game-by-game improvement.”

It shows.

Three nights after shooting a season-high 55.7 percent in a relatively easy win over defending NBA champion Miami, Indiana shot 52.7 percent against a Bulls defense that is ranked No. 2 in the NBA in defensive field goal percentage. The only team ahead of the Bulls is the Pacers, and Indiana never trailed in the second half Monday…

Starting guards Derrick Rose (left knee) and Kirk Hinrich (right elbow) and starting center Joakim Noah (right foot) all sat out again with injuries, and they had another scare late in the first quarter when Marco Belinelli crashed to the floor clutching his right ankle. He returned later and finished with a season-high 24 points. Nate Robinson finished with 19 points, nine assists and five rebounds, and Carlos Boozer had 10 points and five rebounds as he returned from a right hamstring injury…

It was Indiana’s first regular-season home win over Chicago since March 18, 2011. … The Bulls are 6-20 all-time at Bankers Life Fieldhouse. … Bulls guard Marquis Teague finished with two points in his first pro appearance in his hometown. … The Bulls lost for only the third time in nine games.

– Reported by Michael Marot of the Associated Press

Pacers coach Frank Vogel says Danny Granger could be back on the court before the All-Star break in mid-February.

Granger has been out all season with a patellar tendinosis in his left knee, but was cleared to participate in full contact practice for the first time Thursday. Vogel says he worked for 20 minutes in half-court sets.

In early November, the Pacers said Granger could miss up to three months after getting an injection in his injured knee. Granger has been mostly quiet since the announcement.

– Reported by the Associated Press

The Indiana Pacers today re-assigned Miles Plumlee to the Fort Wayne Mad Ants, Indiana’s NBA Development League affiliate.  The assignment is the record 120th of the 2012-13 NBA and NBA D-League seasons, while Plumlee is one of a record 51 players who have been assigned to the NBA D-League this season.

Plumlee (6-11, 255, Duke) re-joins the Mad Ants following six previous assignments when he played in 11 games and averaged 12.8 points, 11.2 rebounds, 1.7 blocks and 31.3 minutes.  He has appeared in seven games for the Pacers this season, averaging 0.9 points, 1.6 rebounds and 3.6 minutes.

Selected 26th overall by the Pacers in the first round of the 2012 NBA Draft, Plumlee was a four-year member of the Blue Devils, where he won an NCAA Championship in 2010.

Plumlee is expected to be in available tonight when the team travels to play the Canton Charge at 7 p.m. ET.

Free agent Sam Young has an NBA job again. The Indiana Pacers announced Monday they have re-signed Young to a contract.

The Pacers originally signed Young on Sept. 12, 2012 and waived him on Jan. 6, 2013.  He played 28 games with the Pacers, averaging 3.6 points and 2.9 rebounds.

Young is a 6-6 small forward/shooting guard who played three NBA seasons with the Memphis Grizzlies and Philadelphia 76ers. He has career averages of 6.3 points per game and 2.4 rebounds per game. He was a second-round pick (36th overall) of the Grizzlies in the 2009 NBA Draft.

The 26-18 Pacers are currently the 5th seed in the Eastern conference.

Indiana Pacers small forward Danny Granger is still progressing on schedule with the rehabilitation of his left knee.

The Pacers would like for him to play before the All-Star break next month. But they’re also looking at the possibility of holding him out until after the break to ensure that he’s ready for the stretch run of the season.

“That’s definitely a consideration,” Pacers coach Frank Vogel said. “The week or so before the All-Star break, we’ll look to see if it makes sense to play him then or wait until after the break.”

Granger, whose season has consisted of two preseason games, has been cleared to do all team non-contact activities.

– Reported by Mike Wells of the Indianapolis Star

Al Jefferson scored 25 points and Paul Millsap had 21, leading the Utah Jazz to a 114-110 overtime victory over the Indiana Pacers on Saturday night.

Utah scored the first six points in overtime after blowing a 97-89 lead with 2:44 left in regulation. Gordon Hayward coughed up three turnovers to Indiana’s George Hill in the final minute of the fourth.

Paul George scored 24 points, David West added 23 and Hill had 22 for Indiana (26-18), which lost for the third time in four road games. The Pacers outrebounded the Jazz 41-28.

Hayward scored 15 points, but had the ball stolen from him three times on the final three possessions for Utah in regulation…

The Pacers trimmed the lead to three on Roy Hibbert’s basket with 4:22 left. Then Jefferson took over, making a free throw and a pair of baskets to increase Utah’s advantage to eight.

Indiana closed the second quarter with a 9-0 run to take a 48-45 halftime lead. West closed the run with a jumper.

Indiana shot 62.5 percent (20 of 32) from the field in the first half. … Hibbert finished with 14 points and 12 rebounds. … Utah went 3 for 10 from 3-point range, compared to 7 for 21 for Indiana.

– Reported by John Coon of the Associated Press

The experiment of having swingman Gerald Green be the primary scoring option off the bench has ended.

How long things remain that way will be determined by when Green gets out of his seasonlong funk.

Indiana Pacers coach Frank Vogel has benched Green and replaced him in the rotation with rookie Orlando Johnson.

“Just trying something different with him and hopefully trigger some improvement in his shooting,” Vogel said. “We try different things on the court, and when it’s not working, we take a step back, get him out of the rotation for a few games, get extra shots and hopefully it changes his rhythm and flow.”

– Reported by Mike Wells of the Indianapolis Star

Paul George made everything look easy Friday night.

Scoring, rebound, playing defense, even winning seems second-nature to the Pacers’ budding star these days.

George finished with 31 points, and David West added 20 points and 11 rebounds, helping Central Division-leading Indiana pull away from struggling Houston 105-95.

”My guys found me, so I just had to knock shots down,” George said. ”It felt good, it’s easy to start in a flow when you get some good looks early on and that was the case tonight.”

George has been the key figure in Indiana’s incredible turnaround. The Pacers (25-16) have rebounded from a sluggish start by going 15-5 over the last 20 games, pulling even in the win column with the New York Knicks in the Eastern Conference and winning 11 straight at home - their longest since winning 14 in a row in 2002-03.

Plus, George continued to make his case for being on the East’s All-Star roster by going 8-of-11 from the field and knocking down five 3-pointers in the first half, and then playing a second half in which he looked content to make all the right moves regardless of his scoring chances.

The result: George finished 11 of 19 from the field, 7 of 10 from 3-point range, had six rebounds, five steals, three assists and one block in a game the Pacers dictated almost from start to finish. It was George’s third 30-point game of the season…

While Omer Asik scored a career-high 22 points and finished with 11 rebounds, the Pacers held James Harden to 17 points on 5-of-19 shooting. Harden, who was defended most of the night by George, had a career-best streak of 22 straight games with 20 or more points end on the same night the NBA’s second-best scoring team finished 10 points below it average and shot just 41.0 percent from the field.

– Reported by Michael Marot of the Associated Press

The Indiana Pacers today re-assigned Miles Plumlee to the Fort Wayne Mad Ants, Indiana’s NBA Development League affiliate.  The assignment is the record 104th  of the 2012-13 NBA and NBA D-League seasons, while Plumlee is one of the record 50 players who have been assigned to the NBA D-League this season.

Plumlee (6-11, 255, Duke) re-joins the Mad Ants following five previous assignments when he played in seven games and averaged 13.9  points, 10.9 rebounds and 32.1 minutes.  He has appeared in six games for the Pacers this season, averaging 1.0 points, 1.3 rebounds and 3.7 minutes.

Selected 26th overall by the Pacers in the first round of the 2012 NBA Draft, Plumlee was a four-year member of the Blue Devils, where he won an NCAA Championship in 2010.

Plumlee is expected to be in available tonight when the team travels to face the Los Angeles D-Fenders.

Brook Lopez rebounded from an awful start to score nine points in a crucial 17-0, fourth-quarter run, leading the Brooklyn Nets to a come-from-behind, 97-86 victory over the Indiana Pacers on Sunday night at the Barclays Center.

Brooklyn (22-15) earned its sixth consecutive win, improving to 8-1 under interim head coach P.J. Carlesimo. The Pacers (23-15) saw their four-game winning streak end. Indiana had won 18 of 20 this season when taking a lead into the fourth quarter.

The Pacers led 75-69 going into the final period, and they pushed the lead to eight on a power move from Ian Mahinmi with 10:56 remaining.

The Nets scored the game’s next 17 points run over a span of 4:14, with Lopez leading the way. He entered the fourth quarter shooting 1-for-8 from the floor, but he hit two big corner jumpers and had two big dunks in the late surge. Lopez finished the night with 15 points and nine rebounds.

Brooklyn point guard Deron Williams, who suffered a thigh contusion in Friday’s win over the Phoenix Suns, scored 12 of his team-high 22 points in the first quarter. Williams also had nine assists. Joe Johnson added 20 points for the winners.

Indiana’s David West scored a game-high 27 points. Paul George added 15 points and 12 rebounds, and former Net Gerald Green had 15 off the bench for the Pacers.

– Reported by Jim Hague of the Sports Xchange

First the Heat, now the Knicks.

The Indiana Pacers are proving they can beat up on everyone in the Eastern Conference these days.

Paul George scored seven of his 25 points during a decisive 13-0 fourth-quarter run, leading the Pacers past New York 81-76 on a night the Knicks were without their top scorer, Carmelo Anthony. Indiana has won 12 of 15 and swept the two other Eastern Conference division leaders this week.

”We want to compete for the one and two (seeds) and for sure want to compete for the No. 1 spot,” George said. ”We probably could be pushing one or two if we would have started off playing the way we’re playing right now.”

Clearly, the Knicks (23-12) weren’t the same without their All-Star forward, who was suspended for the game after Monday’s postgame confrontation with Boston’s Kevin Garnett. They finished with a season-low point total, shot just 34.8 percent from the field and 20 percent from 3-point range.

And the Pacers (22-14) took Anthony’s absence by pulling off a rare double - beating defending champion Miami and Atlantic Division-leading New York - in back-to-back games.

It’s about time. The Pacers came into this season with high expectations, but struggled early as they tried to adjust to life without their top scorer, Danny Granger, who still has not played because of a left knee injury…

George started the game by missing his first five shots, but wound up finishing 10 of 24 from the field. He also had 11 rebounds, six steals, five assists and one block on a night point guard George Hill played with bronchitis and All-Star center Roy Hibbert left twice with a bad back…

Ian Mahinmi finished with 13 points and six rebounds, and Lance Stephenson added nine points and seven rebounds.

– Reported by Michael Marot of the Associated Press