I’ve got to plead some ignorance when it comes to both head injuries and the NBA’s new(ish) concussion protocol. I didn’t know much about either before this morning. I’m still no expert, but, ya know, baby steps.

Like many people, I read Malcolm Gladwell’s 2009 New Yorker piece on concussions and recoiled in horror. Since then, I have watched the science develop from afar, my relationship with football growing more morally ambivalent, my understanding of brain trauma evolving with time, my agony at hearing the news of a player suicide recurring too often.

When I heard that Junior Seau killed himself, time froze.

Not Junior.

I was a 49ers fan growing up (still am), and the 1994 team — with Deion and Merton Hanks doing that swag stuff, before we knew it was a word, before it became the new-millenium “gnarly” — was my favorite thing ever. I’m surprised I didn’t wind up in the hospital with a snapped neck trying to do that Merton Hanks dance in my bedroom.

The only aspect of their Super Bowl rout over the Chargers that bothered me was that it happened to Junior.

I was such a fan.

Who wasn’t?

I was an offense guy before that, a Jerry Rice guy, first and foremost. Ronnie Lott was my dude, too, but that 1994 Niners squad turned me. It was the final kick I needed to care more about the grimier side of the ball, although it was somewhat ironic that it took that All-World eleven-man combo, playing with such flash, to push me over.

But two guys, other than Lott, laid the foundation the proceded that switch: Derrick Thomas and Junior Seau. I was a little young for prime L.T., so it was those two linebackers that started to make me see why defense mattered more.

If you know the NFL, you know what happened to D.T.

Car crash. Tragedy. Such a loss.

I remember being happy that him and Joe Montana got to play together at least. I rooted for Joe and Derrick to make the Super Bowl after the best QB in history left the Bay.

But to see Junior’s untimely passing, so young, too?

Man. Kick to the gut.

It was just over a year ago. I was in Miami, attending a business convention about weather. Three days later, I would drive four hours north to watch the Pacers beat the Magic in Orlando in round one of the playoffs. I remember thinking about Junior, and more his mom, her soul wailing on live television, during that long drive, alone, whipping a rental at 90 through the dull Florida swampland, hoping to shave enough minutes off of the commute to make it in time to listen to Stan Van Gundy speak to the media before the two o’clock tip.

(I made it. He was funny and Van Gundyian. The Pacers almost collapsed but won in overtime. The Magic have a nice arena. I enjoyed the trip.)

This is all preamble to say that my understanding of concussions is little, and my emotional reaction to them is large. In the past year, I’ve seen a few 60 Minutes-type pieces, read a few magazine features and tried to keep up on the phenomenal work my bros Beckley Mason and Henry Abbott have done on basketball-related concussions over at TrueHoop.

But, mostly, my outlook on concussions has more to do with the memory of watching Junior Seau’s mom fall to pieces on live TV last May than it has to do with actual knowledge of how the human brain is affected by blunt-force trauma.

Like a good little pretend journalist, however, I’ve tried to do my research on the matter before trying to add any insight to the George Hill situation.

After suffering a concussion when colliding with a Tyson Chandler screen during the first quarter of Game 4 (video of the play above), he was a late scratch from yesterday’s attempted close-out game against the Knicks. The Pacers proceeded to play like a team that lost the only reliable point guard on their roster.

It was gross basketball that I did not care to watch. It was a laughable display of turnovers, really.

The team seems to badly need Hill. If he can’t play, that significantly ups the likelihood that the Knicks can pull off an improbable come back after trailing 3-1 in this series.

It’s bad news.

But while I get that basketball is not football, mostly, it’s bad news for George Hill.

Not the Indiana Pacers. Not the Indiana Pacers fans.

Again, I don’t know crap about crap when it comes to brain trauma, but I’m a precautionary principle guy through and through, so my instincts tell me that, if Hill isn’t 100 percent, he shouldn’t be playing basketball in the next few days. Maybe not in the next few weeks.

This series is a giant moment for the Pacers franchise, but this is a man’s brain health. That’s not about walking around with pain in your knee everyday when you’re 54 years old. It’s a lot bigger.

That said, we have no idea how severe this concussion was. As I’ve come to understand it, since he flew to New York and went through shootaround and was walking around the arena and talking to people before the game, that means his symptoms were likely mild. But, as I’ve come to understand it, the lack of severity of symptoms doesn’t necessarily mean the recovery time will be shorter than it would be if the symptoms were more limiting.

Like all injuries, brain injuries heal with rest. How much Hill needs to recover is a great unknown, certainly to me, almost definitely to him and probably even to the doctors giving him medical advice.

Looking at other players’ recovery times seems problematic, because brain health seems like perhaps the most unique-to-an-individual type of health there is. (Again, no M.D. Just guessing on that.)

Nevertheless, here is a graphic ESPN put together on time missed by a few NBA players who have suffered concussions.

Again, take this with a grain of salt. None of the names on that list are “George Hill,” and none suffered his specific injury. Medical science has not reached the point where this equates to the typical “meniscus tear: four to six weeks” prognosis for recovery.

Here is some related recovery information that Abbott and Mason compiled for TrueHoop.

In the concussions-focused documentary “Head Games,” Douglas Smith, a neuroscientist from the University of Pennsylvania, cautions that “15 or so percent of people with a single concussion have persisting cognitive dysfunction, meaning they don’t go back to school or to work or just carry on life the way they had it. They have long-term, persisting problems after one concussion.”

In a presentation at the University of Michigan, Kutcher says skipping the proper care is a mistake: “The biggest risk is their injury is going to be a lot more complicated. … Instead of a seven-day concussion, it’s going to be a seven-week concussion. Instead of two weeks, it’s going to be six months.”

This is scary stuff.

Brian Scalabrine, who suffered three concussions in one month, shared his story of recovery with Mason for TrueHoop.

The story is I got hit in the head and more than likely I would have sat out the entire year … except that [Kevin] Garnett was out with the little knee thing he had, then Leon Powe tears his ACL.

So we’re sitting there playing Chicago in the first round and at that point I go back to “I don’t care if I’m 70 percent, I don’t care if I’m 50 percent, I have an opportunity right now to play in the playoffs.”

The only two bigs we had were [Kendrick] Perkins and Big Baby [Glen Davis]. I was the third rotational big man, and I got a chance to play a ton of minutes in the playoffs. So I said, Hey, the long-term repercussions of this, I’ll deal with later. I’m going to push through and play.

More from Scalabrine.

The symptoms were this: I couldn’t sleep longer than three-and-a-half hours. So every three-and-a-half hours, I would wake up for two hours, then try to go back to sleep for three hours, then I’d wake up again.

Another symptom was that I couldn’t handle light, at all, so I’d wear dark, dark sunglasses all the time. And every time I tried to exercise, I would get really light-headed. So for me to be cleared, I had to be cool on all three.

Well, I just lied.

At the end of the day, I made that decision and I was happy with that decision. I’m completely fine with that because I look for opportunities; I was an opportunistic guy. I played 11 years in the NBA without a lot of talent, so I tried to take advantage of the opportunity in front of me. Regardless of how I felt, I was playing through that. I just said I’ll just deal with this stuff later.

I just told the doctor, Man this is great! I don’t have any issues with light, I’m sleeping better, I’m doing this, I’m doing that.

Were those things happening? Eh, not really. I wasn’t sleeping much better, I wasn’t feeling much better. But at the end of the day, there was an opportunity to play, so I played. That’s the decision I have to live with, and I’m completely fine with it.

Again, again … This isn’t to equate Scalabrine’s situation directly to Hill’s. They are different injuries.

At some point, George Hill is a grown-ass man and he will come to a grown-ass man decision on if and when he can play. Will he feel ready to suit up in Game 6 on Saturday and/or for any subsequent games this season against the Knicks or Heat or (let’s get wild with it) the Grizzlies or Spurs?

Knowing what I do about NBA athletes generally and George Hill specifically, I’m guessing he will try to play as soon as he can. He’s a local kid playing for a hometown team that is desperately in need of his services, and he wants his team to reach the Eastern Conference Finals and then win the NBA Finals. Moreover, if this team loses to the Knicks, or the Heat, or the Grizz/Spurs, I believe he wants to die with his teammates as that ship sinks. Everyone raves about how close knit this group is. I can’t imagine how difficult it would be for him to sit on the sidelines and watch his team lose.

The hurdle to doing so, other than Hill’s personal opinion on his ability to play, is the NBA’s concussion protocol, established in December 2011 before the start of the lock-out shortened 2011-12 regular season.

I asked NBA public relations head Tim Frank for the details of the multi-step process that must take place before a player can return to the court. He broke down the following details in an email.

• If a player is suspected of having suffered a concussion, or if he exhibits any signs or symptoms of a concussion, he is removed from a game or practice. The team’s medical staff then evaluates the player.

• If a player is diagnosed with a concussion, he may not “return to participation” on the same day. (This is I believe what happened yesterday with George Hill, who was diagnosed yesterday for the concussion suffered on Tuesday during Game 4, only after having flown to New York and participating in shootaround on Thursday before Game 5.)

• The player is barred from all team activity until he free of symptoms “at rest.” He will continue to be held out of all activity until he has “no appreciable difference from his “baseline neurological exam” (which every player takes in the preseason) and his “baseline score” on the computerized cognitive assessment test (also taken by every player in the preseason).

• Once the player is symptom-free at rest, with “no appreciable difference from his baseline tests,” he must complete the NBA’s “return-to-participation protocol,” a multi-step process of increasingly strenuous exertion tests, before being cleared to play. The series of physical tests advances from: (1) a stationary bike to (2) jogging to (3) agility work to (4) non-contact team drills. After each step, a player must show no concussion symptoms. Then he can advance to the next step. If a player shows concussion symptoms, testing stops until he is symptom-free. Once he is, he can resume testing, beginning with the last step he passed before showing concussion symptoms.

• The team physician oversees this process and ultimately makes the decision to clear the player, but that doctor must consult with the NBA’s director of the concussion program.

• Frank concluded his email with this: “It’s important to note that there is no timeframe to complete the protocol. Each injury and player is different and recovery time can vary in each case.”

TrueHoop published more details about how the protocol works in the real world, including some background information on how the preseason “baseline” tests are conducted.

Before the 2011-12 season, the NBA contracted Kutcher to design and implement a cutting-edge concussion protocol. Every concussion case is diagnosed by the team medical staff and then reviewed by Kutcher. Though he does not have the final say in whether a player is cleared to play — that is still the purview of the team physician — Kutcher does act as a league-wide quality control in concussion diagnosis.

Kutcher installed a three-part diagnosis and treatment procedure. In the preseason, players fill out a form designed to show aspects of typical cognitive functioning, as well as a personal and family history of brain trauma. Kutcher says this helps “understand how [the player’s] brain may or may not be set up to produce symptoms when it’s injured.”

Players also undergo tests with the Axon Sports neurocognitive tool to measure things like reaction time, memory and distractability. To understand the impact of a blow to the head, it helps to first understand a player’s normal brain functioning.

During games, all NBA trainers have a second form, essentially a checklist, to help decipher when to pull a player. For many years, being “knocked out” — a total loss of consciousness — has been the rule of thumb for telling who is concussed. We now know concussions come in many more varieties. This test is designed to help team trainers determine whether a blow to the head requires a player to come out of the game.

Underlying all of that is the reality that concussion symptoms can take hours, or even days, to present themselves.

The team staff goes into action, Kutcher says, any time there’s a blow to the head: “It’s not ‘come see me in my clinic and I’m going to give you a diagnosis and fill out a form and send you on your way, come back and see me in a month.’ It’s ‘I saw a big hit, I’m now going to evaluate you. If you pass everything, I’m not going to turn my back on you and let you play then check in in a week. I’m going to watch you every series, I’m going to watch you up and down the court, I’m going to watch you at halftime, I’m going to talk to you after the game. It’s a continued process and a concussion sort of requires that approach, which speaks to how different management is in the upper levels of sports when you have the resources to do that.”

Also new in the NBA is that once diagnosed with a concussion, NBA players must pass through the league’s “return to play” protocol, a more involved series of tests.

“Since they have no diagnostic, objective test for concussion,” Kutcher says, “we’re basically challenging the brain once it is essentially not producing symptoms at rest — how can that brain handle first straight-up physical exertion, then more interval training, then agility and so on and so forth, tracking the brain at each level to make sure the injury is over.”

Like most injuries, the brain will not heal without rest. But resting the brain is not as simple as resting, say, an ankle by donning an immobilizing boot. Even watching TV could tax an injured head and extend a brain injury’s duration. Kutcher’s protocol is designed to ensure players get the rest they need to recover, and is a key reason players like Anthony Davis and Pau Gasol have been kept from competition.

All this shows the formidable logistical difficulties the Indiana Pacers face before they can get their point guard back on the court. There is a lot to go through in a very short period of time, especially if we’re talking about a potential return tomorrow night for Game 6 in Indiana, when the Pacers will have another chance to end the Knicks’ season.

Still, it’s strange to me how all this stuff is being discussed, by and large. Most accounts, to me, carry the implication that the process is the barrier from Hill playing.

In a way, sure.

But his health — a recovery following brain trauma — is the actual issue.

My guess is that George is, at least in part, bemoaning the same logistical hurdles that many fans are. Like Scalabrine, and regardless of the league’s ongoing effort to educate players about brain injuries, he might just not care. He might just want to play as soon as possible.

That’s fine. His call, as long as the doctors sign off on it.

But that’s the whole point here: The protocols were put in place for just this reason. At least in part, this system was put in place to protect the players from themselves.

The Pacers need a capable point guard. But George Hill has to make the best decision for George Hill before even considering that fact. It’s just a game.

UPDATE: The concussion protocol description, as explained by the NBA, has been altered since original publication to better explain the process.

You cannot close out a team that won 54 regular season games on its own floor when you miss 14 free throws and give up 19 turnovers in a slow-paced game.

You just can’t.

There isn’t much more to say.

Several guys played bad and the bench was an hydrogen blimp explosion.

The late-arriving news that George Hill couldn’t play certainly threw a wrench into the rotation, but nobody stepped up, and the team was just way too sloppy to win this game.

It’s amazing to me that they were even within 4 in the fourth quarter. I kept looking up and expecting it to be 15. That’s a credit to their defense, which I understand isn’t a separate entity from the team as a whole.

Still, it was error-prone hoops at its worst, and the 19 turnovers felt more like 30 just considering how prominent each was. They all, particularly in the second half, stood out as glaring reminders of just how poorly this team handles the ball and pressure at times.

That is the case even when they have Hill as the primary ball handler.

Without him?

Yikes.

Here is how each guy played individually tonight. Agree? Disagree? Express your thoughts below in the comments or yell at me (@8pts9secs) or Tim (@TimDonahue8p9s) on Twitter.

	David West, PF 39 MIN | 7-17 FG | 3-6 FT | 10 REB | 2 AST | 3 STL | 0 BLK | 3 TO | 17 PTS | -12 Can’t shoot anymore apparently. He has struggled to hit shots all series, but this was especially egregious. His line doesn’t look as bad as it could, since he had two early put backs and found himself in position to benefit from a Paul George pass after a back court steal for a dunk. Good on him for mixing it up down low and earning those buckets, but he was 4-for-14 otherwise, with most of the misses coming on shots that he makes regularly.
	Paul George, SF 43 MIN | 7-18 FG | 7-10 FT | 6 REB | 6 AST | 1 STL | 0 BLK | 4 TO | 23 PTS | -8 Did nice work on ‘Melo and J.R., and you don’t want to stop appreciating that. And he hit two big shots in the fourth to keep hope alive, one plus the foul in the paint and another on a deep three that cut the deficit to 4 with under seven minutes to play. Still, the turnovers (4 in the second half) and the misses (1-for-6 in the first half) continue to mar his game.
	Roy Hibbert, C 31 MIN | 3-7 FG | 3-4 FT | 7 REB | 1 AST | 0 STL | 2 BLK | 3 TO | 9 PTS | 0 Rim protection, unwarranted foul trouble, some shaky post moves, a really, really bad turnover when faced with a simple double team in the fourth.
	D.J. Augustin, PG 39 MIN | 3-9 FG | 3-5 FT | 2 REB | 0 AST | 2 STL | 0 BLK | 2 TO | 12 PTS | -6 Made some shots. Hurt the team in many other ways. Let’s talk about this more tomorrow.
	Lance Stephenson, SG 34 MIN | 1-7 FG | 2-4 FT | 8 REB | 2 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 1 TO | 4 PTS | -12 Throughout the regular season, Lance would sometimes get overly eager about trying to break down a defender off the dribble when he had a mismatch. Maybe he has been told to cut that out. Maybe he was shaken up from two rough falls while driving. But, man, it would be nice to see him make the Knicks pay for guarding him with Jason Kidd and Chris Copeland.

	Tyler Hansbrough, PF 9 MIN | 0-3 FG | 0-0 FT | 2 REB | 0 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 1 TO | 0 PTS | +2 Added nothing I remember.
	Gerald Green, SF 13 MIN | 2-5 FG | 0-0 FT | 3 REB | 1 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 3 TO | 5 PTS | +5 We’ll talk more about this tomorrow.
	Sam Young, SF 15 MIN | 0-1 FG | 0-0 FT | 2 REB | 0 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 0 TO | 0 PTS | -9 We’ll talk more about this tomorrow.
	Ian Mahinmi, C 17 MIN | 2-2 FG | 1-4 FT | 3 REB | 0 AST | 0 STL | 1 BLK | 2 TO | 5 PTS | -10 Played good defense. Didn’t miss a shot.
	Orlando Johnson, SG DNP COACH’S DECISION  Didn’t play.

I’m not a doctor, but the chronology seems to mean that Hill’s 14-point third quarter outburst happened while he was concussed. He scored 5 of the team’s 7 field goals in the quarter while being the one player on the court who seemingly had no business on the floor.

Wow.

“About four o’clock today, that’s when I found out,” said Vogel. “He had the test this afternoon.” Vogel added that Hill never complained of any pain during Game 4 that the coach was aware of.

Hill will miss Game 5 in New York, and his status will remain day to day until he can pass the league-mandated, concussion-test protocols for a player to return to the court after he has been diagnosed as suffering a concussion.

Concussions are no joke. The NFL has taught us that. So after George Hill started showing some concussion-like symptoms in the two days since Game 4, the Pacers had him checked out.

D.J. Augustin will start at point guard for the Pacers.

“He’s run the team as our point all year, so nothing will change with him in the game,” said Vogel about Augustin’s time on the court.

Augustin has been playing his best basketball of the season in the playoffs, so the proposition of him playing is not as scary for Pacers fans as it would have been a few months ago. Still, his size on defense could prove problematic, and Indiana may for the first time in this series face a real challenge in terms of trying to put a team effort into containing Raymond Felton.

Getting back to offense, when Augustin is out is when the offense may get weird.

Vogel said that both Lance Stephenson, a combo guard who has started at shooting guard all season, will likely see some minutes at the backup point spot. Seldom-used reserve Ben Hansbrough, the brother of Tyler, may also see time.

Vogel also noted before the game that, if Stephenson plays minutes at the point, this means minutes will open up on the wing, and these will need to be filled by the likes of Sam Young, Gerald Green and possibly even Orlando Johnson, who has yet to see a meaningful minute in this postseason.

This writer, while speculating, would also not be shocked to see Paul George go all 48 minutes. He has played 45:02 and 43:21 in the past two games against New York, and is averaging nearly 43 minutes per game over his last five games dating back to the final game of the Atlanta series.

Then again, asking a guy — even a 23-year-old — to lock up Carmelo Anthony for even that long per night is quite the proposition, so the returns could start diminishing and affect his ability to close the game as a scorer if it comes to that.

Perhaps Sam Young is the answer.

File that sentence under “things I never thought I would type.”

Given that closing out a good team on its home floor was going to be difficult anyway, perhaps there will be some value in throwing Johnson out there. He proved that he’s capable of being an offensive spark at times in the regular season, and he generally plays with a fearlessness that may keep him from being affected by trying to execute inside the World’s Most Famous Arena. He may just be too young and green to know any better.

And more importantly, he’s not Green.

The Pacers allowed fewer points per possession and forced a lower shooting percentage than any other team. The Knicks set all all-time record for team three-point attempts per game.

One side had to budge.

Through four games, it couldn’t be more glaring which team has.

Just look at the gory numbers.

In an attempt to find some area in which the Knicks are playing well on offense, I expanded an analysis of scoring to virtually every definition anyone could use to explain how points are put in the hoop.

We have points in the paint, second-chance points, three-pointers, free throws, fast-break points, points scored off of turnovers, backcourt scoring, frontcourt scoring and bench scoring.

There are only two areas in which the Knicks have an advantage worth mentioning: Bench points and points off of turnovers.

The bench scoring was expected. Sixth Man of the Year award winner J.R. Smith comes off of New York’s bench, and he averaged 18.1 points per game in the regular season. No Indiana reserve averaged within even 10 points of that total.

This was sure to happen, and the Knicks are averaging 30 bench points per game compared to 17.8 per night for the Pacers.

Then there are the turnovers.

The Knicks have out-scored the Pacers 77-53 off of turnovers this series. But that is almost entirely the product of Game 2, during which New York forced Indiana into a slew of turnovers as it went on a historic 30-2 run to put the game away in the late third/early fourth quarters.

In the other three games, Indiana has out-scored New York after giveaways, albeit barely, 47-45. Other than Game 2, the off-turnover scoring has been negligible.

Same goes for fast break points, a category in which New York has outscored Indiana 20-19 in four games. That’s 5.0 per game compared to 4.8 per game.

It has been an irrelevant category all series, with neither team running at all. It should be noted that this has the potential to change. Mike Woodson, especially, and Frank Vogel, somewhat, have both said they need to find a way to get more points in transition.

This ends the “good” news for New York.

Really, there has been none other than the expected bench dominance and the advantageous turnover-forcing in Game 2.

Everything else has been all Pacers.

Points in the paint, second-chance points and free-throw scoring were all expected Indiana advantages. And New York has actually hung in those first two categories overall. Though, again, most of their positive news in these “muscle” departments has come from their 52 paint points and 29 second-chance points in Game 2.

They have also benefited from the Pacers suspect free-throw shooting.

With just a 72.2% make rate, Indiana has only been able to turn its 97-72 free-throw attempt advantage (plus 25) into a 70-55 advantage (plus 15) in actual points. For a team that doesn’t seem like it should have any glaringly bad free-throw shooters, this remains a head scratching problem area.

The most surprising number, obviously, is the three-point scoring differential.

Before the series, the Pacers were likely hoping to stay relatively even in this category. Instead, they have out-scored the Knicks by 18 from behind the arc.

(Though it should be noted that the entirety of this advantage came in Game 3, when Indiana somehow held the Knicks to 11 three-point attempts, including just 8 before garbage time.)

A look at the shooting percentages tells the same story: Indiana’s defense is dominating the Knicks. The only positive numbers we see for New York come from the free-throw line or during Game 2.

If you actually look at the Pacers’ shooting numbers, they are pretty poor. But the Knicks’ numbers are significantly worse to the point that the more-meaningful parts of the chart are mostly yellow.

So …

My only question for Mike Woodson and the Knicks players at this point is — to quote the Bobs from Office Space — what would ya say … ya do here?

In this series, the Knicks haven’t been able to shoot from deep, score in the paint, get offensive rebounds, get to the line or get out in transition.

Unless Woodson plans to invent a new way of scoring that I’ve never heard of (maybe half-court shots?), that needs to change if New York hopes to extend this series.

It’s 3-1 and the Pacers just embarrassed the Knicks in Indiana. This is a 1990s’ fan dream.

What’s most remarkable about this team — other than its best-in-the-world defense — is that it really doesn’t need to rely on anyone to score. David West has been an shot-making no show the past two games, but it has not mattered. Instead of him getting his normal number of points, George Hill just ups his scoring load and D.J. Augustin has another nice night off the bench.

It stands out even more next to the Knicks, which need Carmelo and J.R. Smith to put up points so badly. When you fill a roster with so many old people and non-scorers, that’s just what happens.

The Pacers, on the other hand, haven’t sacrificed an ability to score to create this defense. Neither Hill nor Roy Hibbert is someone who is going to score a ton of points every night, but Games 3 and 4 have showed that they are more than capable of going on an outburst.

As for the actual break down of Indiana’s Game 4, it was all kicked off by another great start. They were getting buckets right out of the gate and New York was not. It was 11-3 less than five minutes in, and the Knicks were in disarray, missing the same midrange looks they have been settling for all series. The Pacers, when they got a shot up, were successful. But they turned the ball over too much — way too much — to turn this into a laugher early.

Instead, they did something more impressive: Maintain a 10-ish-point lead for the entire game.

They never had any prolonged stretch of total drought, scoring baskets at a fairly regular clip throughout. And they kept New York frustrated and out of sorts. Carmelo Anthony hit a shot every so often that made you think that the Knicks would be roaring back, but it never happened. The slow-and-steady tortoise just maintained the lead.

Hill was huge in the third. This can’t be overstated.

The offense didn’t look great otherwise and the Knicks were getting points more easily. They still shot the same 35% that, I guess, is just the rate that they make shots against this Pacers’ defense now, but they got to the line and took 10 of their 20 shots within five feet of the rim. Meanwhile, Indiana shot no better, hitting just 7-of-19 shots (36.8%). In all, Hill made 5 of his team’s 7 third-quarter field goals while scoring 14 of its 19 points.

Without him — the hometown kid who was committed to getting to the bucket while looking as determined to score as I’ve ever seen him — the Pacers may have surrendered a good portion of that lead. That was a 19-point quarter that at other times in this year, when no individual has stepped up, may have been a 12-point quarter. And, then, if the Knicks had entered the fourth quarter down just 4 instead of down 11, who knows what happens? Maybe Carmelo takes over and these teams are headed back to New York knotted up?

But that didn’t happen.

George Hill didn’t let it.

And in doing so, he became the third “podium game” guy (the person who talks in the post-game press conference) for the Pacers in three wins over New York. (David West had the honors after Game 1 while Roy Hibbert handled the duty after Game 3.)

Entering the final period, the Knicks were shooting 33.3% from the floor. They were 21-of-63, including 3-of-18 (16.7%) from three.

Then the Pacers just grinded out the rest of the win.

Neither team could score efficiently down the stretch, but Indiana did just enough. Chris Copeland, finally getting some minutes, and J.R. Smith put some threes on the board, but Lance Stephenson buried a monster triple himself and broke Carmelo off the dribble for a vicious drive-and-finish.

He did his part on the boards, as well — something the Pacers wings might now be the best in the league at.

In the first 11 minutes of the quarter, the Knicks missed 12 shots. Lance Stephenson (3) and Paul George (4) grabbed 7 of those rebounds. It is stuff like this, in addition to his role in forcing Anthony to shot 0-of-4 in the fourth quarter before fouling out, that makes it really hard to care that George shot 1-for-6 in the fourth with 2 turnovers.

That type of offense is gaudy, but the defense and the boards are his foundation. And they never disappear.

He’s a microcosm of this whole team in that way. Maybe West disappears for a game, but that just means more Hill. When they play well and when they have won in the playoffs, there is never a void when something expected disappears; someone else just fills it that hole.

Tonight, it was D.J. Augustin early, George Hill in the third and a bit of Lance Stephenson late.

A little unexpected offense paired with the suffocating D was more than enough to leave the Knicks on death’s doorstep as they fly home and wonder how in the world they can win three straight games.

Here is how each guy played individually tonight. Agree? Disagree? Express your thoughts below in the comments or yell at me (@8pts9secs) or Tim (@TimDonahue8p9s) on Twitter.

	David West, PF 35 MIN | 3-9 FG | 4-4 FT | 10 REB | 3 AST | 1 STL | 1 BLK | 2 TO | 10 PTS | +5 His shot has been broken the past two games, which is a big problem. Still, he made some nice passes, finding Paul George with a long touchdown and Lance Stephenson under the hoop for a layup (which he missed).
	Paul George, SF 45 MIN | 6-19 FG | 5-8 FT | 14 REB | 7 AST | 2 STL | 2 BLK | 5 TO | 18 PTS | +16 He is missing open three-pointers. He was actually 5/10 from inside the arc, with two of those makes coming on slick, determined drives that showed how Swiss cheese New York’s interior defense is. Way more importantly … the defense. Oh the defense on Carmelo. He’s a savant.
	Roy Hibbert, C 37 MIN | 2-8 FG | 2-3 FT | 11 REB | 2 AST | 0 STL | 3 BLK | 0 TO | 6 PTS | +11 He’s just a terror at the rim. Had 3 blocks and countless other alterations, not to mention a few bad foul calls that were swats. He got Carmelo badly one time — flat-footed — and was whistled for a personal.
	George Hill, PG 37 MIN | 9-14 FG | 6-9 FT | 3 REB | 4 AST | 1 STL | 0 BLK | 4 TO | 26 PTS | +5 Hill took over after half time, scoring 13 points in the third and doing his damage in various ways. The team didn’t play all that great in the period, so it was huge that George kept the lead by himself. He was elected the mayor of Indianapolis after the game.
	Lance Stephenson, SG 35 MIN | 5-13 FG | 0-0 FT | 7 REB | 1 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 1 TO | 13 PTS | +6 It’s funny that I can look down and say “Lance got 7 boards” without even flinching anymore. There were a lot of Knicks misses, so grain of salt, but he also knocked down his open threes and had one monster drive late by Carmelo that felt like the final nail in New York’s coffin. Then he sprinted down court during the ensuring timeout to jaw and flex at some Knicks fans who had been said something to him earlier.

	D.J. Augustin, PG 21 MIN | 2-5 FG | 6-6 FT | 1 REB | 0 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 0 TO | 11 PTS | +9 The moment he entered the game, D.J. broke down Jason Kidd and got to the hoop for a layup. Minutes later, he knocked down a big three that put Indiana up 11. All season, the late first/early second quarter has been when Indiana gave up ground. His timely scoring in this series has helped that time be less of a problem.
	Tyler Hansbrough, PF 14 MIN | 1-3 FG | 0-0 FT | 1 REB | 0 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 0 TO | 2 PTS | +8 No production to speak of, but didn’t seem to be playing poorly. Made a nice move on All Defensive First Team Member Tyson Chandler for a layup.
	Sam Young, SF 6 MIN | 2-2 FG | 0-0 FT | 1 REB | 0 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 0 TO | 5 PTS | 0 Hit a three and finished on a fast break. When Sam Young is scoring, you know it’s not your day.
	Ian Mahinmi, C 10 MIN | 1-3 FG | 0-0 FT | 6 REB | 0 AST | 0 STL | 2 BLK | 0 TO | 2 PTS | +1 He played well. Really, really well.
	Jeff Pendergraph, PF 0 MIN | 0-0 FG | 0-0 FT | 0 REB | 0 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 0 TO | 0 PTS | -3 Garbage time.
	Orlando Johnson, SG 0 MIN | 0-0 FG | 0-0 FT | 0 REB | 0 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 0 TO | 0 PTS | -3 Garbage time.

Starters for Game 4 tonight at Indiana: Felton, Shumpert, Anthony, Martin, Chandler.

— NY_KnicksPR (@NY_KnicksPR) May 14, 2013

In the two days since the Pacers won Game 3, much of the talk has surrounded what adjustments the Knicks would make. They had major struggles on both ends, shooting just 35% (while taking an uncharacteristically low 11 three-point attempts) and allowing 20 second-chance points on the 18 offensive rebounds Indiana grabbed.

Well, now we know the change: Kenyon Martin enters the starting lineup, Pablo Prigioni heads to the bench, according to the Knicks.

New York will start Raymond Felton, Iman Shumpert (who sat out practice yesterday with a sore knee), Carmelo Anthony, Kenyon Martin and Tyson Chandler.

According to Howard Beck of the New York Times, this lineup has never played together.

It may be that the way the Pacers hurt the Knicks on the glass is what precipitated the change. Roy Hibbert, in particular, did damage, getting several tip ins. It was a big topic of discussion at Knicks’ practice on Sunday.

“Second-chance points hurt us again, like they did in Game 1,” said Woodson, “and that’s just individuals [not] putting bodies on guys and blocking out and securing the ball. So we’ve got to clean that area up big time before we get into Tuesday’s game.”

One reporter asked whether Woodson had considered if Marcus Camby might be answer.

“I can’t play 13 guys,” said Woodson. “I mean, shit, I’ve got enough bigs in there. They just gotta do their jobs in terms of blocking out. We had Amar’e and Kenyon in when they had their two bigs in. Are Kenyon and Amar’e big guys? I like to think so, so they’ve gotta get in there and bang. We’ve got to mix it up a little bit and rebound the ball. It takes five guys to rebound the ball, and we’re not getting that done.”

Tyson Chandler pointed to the Knicks inability to rotate properly, mentioning that Hibbert was able to get some of his put-backs because New York’s bigs were unable to drop down and box out Roy after Tyson rotated to help on Indiana ball handlers.

“I think Hibbert may have scored [on] like three or four post-up moves,” said Chandler. “A lot of it was putbacks, and that’s rotations. If one guy follows the assignment, the next guy [has to] follow the assignment. It can’t be one or two guys out there. It has to be an entire team. That’s where we’re falling short right now, and that’s the reason they’re getting a lot of their easy buckets around the basket.”

“Honestly, I think we’re doing it to ourselves,” said Knicks center Tyson Chandler. “I watched the tape myself and there’s open looks. We have to be willing passers. You have to sacrifice yourself sometimes for the betterment of the team, for the betterment of your teammates.”

There may be some truth to that. But the Pacers have also tailored their defensive strategy towards not allowing the Knicks to get clean looks from behind the arc.

“We’re following our plan,” said Indiana coach Frank Vogel at practice yesterday.  ”We’re trying to limit them from the three-point line, and I don’t think they’re really passing up open threes … They’re just not getting open threes.”

This isn’t new.

It is a game plan that is more important against the Knicks — the team that set an all-time NBA record for three-point attempts per game this season — but it is the same strategy the Pacers have employed all year: Don’t leave three-point shooters.

No team was better at it.

Indiana’s opponents shot just 32.7% from three-point range this season. The second-best three-point defense, the Memphis Grizzlies, yielded 33.8%, a significantly higher total. League average was 35.9%. (The Phoenix Suns were the worst in the NBA at 38.8%.)

It’s hard to overstate how impressive allowing just 32.7% is. Essentially, the Pacers make every team’s three-point attack as accurate as Dahntay Jones.

How do they do it specifically?

“It involves rotations, when to help, when not to help — and then when we do help, having the right coverages and rotations and knowing who their best shooters are.”

That’s the whole key: Knowing when to help and when to stay home.

It is a tough balance, but it is one that the Pacers’ starters have begun to master.

This was especially evident in Game 3.

In this clip from early in Game 3, the Knicks run a crafty play to get Ray Felton the ball on the left wing. He gets free on a screen from Tyson Chandler, who then turns and rolls dangerously towards the hoop. It’s clever action that mimics a pick-and-roll but is disguised as Felton pops out from the paint and then instantly attacks.

It takes George Hill out of the play momentarily. Thus, Roy Hibbert is forced to step up and deter Felton from getting a layup. He does so well enough that Ray decides not to shoot or toss the lob to Chandler.

As this is beginning, however, you can see that Paul George and David West are more focused on preventing their men — all the way on the other side of the court — from getting open behind the three-point line than they are on the more-immediate threat of Felton and Chandler.

In this situation, all of the basketball instincts that Paul George has learned over the past two decades he has spent playing this game tell him to rotate to Chandler. He is a giant, hulk of a man barreling to the rim and he looks to be pretty open. Felton probably could have tossed that lob. And as Felton continues to dribble around in the paint, those same instincts should be telling George to come help his teammates prevent Ray from scoring.

You can see him hedge that way.

But he doesn’t commit. He instead relies on the smaller George Hill to finally recover and contest the close shot. George’s priority, as you can tell by him raising his arms to prevent a possible kick out, is to stay with Carmelo Anthony.

It is counterintuitive to the way you would think defense should be played. Why would you rather have a player take a shot eight feet from the hoop than 24 feet from the hoop? Well, that 24-foot shot is worth one more point and, as league-wide numbers have shown for years now, the two shots probably have about the same likelihood of going in regardless of distance.

The Knicks, for example, shot 39.4% from between five and nine feet this season and 38.0% on above-the-break three-pointers, according to NBA.com.

When you add the 7’2″ Roy Hibbert protecting the rim into the equation, the choice becomes clear: The Pacers overwhelmingly prefer Ray Felton to take a contested eight-foot shot than for Carmelo Anthony (or anyone else) to take an open three-pointer.

While this play shows the strength of Indiana’s strategy, it also shows a vulnerability.

David West doesn’t remain as disciplined here. His instincts to protect the paint are even stronger than George’s. He often creeps further than he should on weakside help. Felton probably could have found Iman Shumpert for an open three here as West struggled to make up the distance and close out.

He is in no man’s land: Too far away to help on Felton, but too close to the paint to bother Shumpert from catching and shooting if a pass is made.

Then again, it would be a tough pass to make. Despite Shumpert relocating off the baseline to create a better angle, West is still manning the passing lane. He has been active and deflecting balls all postseason, so his position here may have been fine.

But if I’m Mike Woodson, I would prefer the kick out in this situation — even if the first pass isn’t crisp enough to get Shumpert the shot. There is still plenty of time on the shot clock, so there could be a swing to Carmelo and then over to Pablo Prigioni on the left wing. That is the type of ball movement that can decimate any defense playing any strategy.

Instead, they get fading one-hander from Felton with Hill contesting and Hibbert manning the inside rebounding real estate.

Here is a clip of Paul George doing the same thing in the second half.

Raymond Felton gets some separation in the pick-and-roll and probes for a driving angle on the right side. Paul George is standing right there. Normally, the wing defender there would provide some help.

Nope.

It’s like George almost makes a point not to. He just turns around to face Felton, not to stop Ray from scoring but to prevent any possible passing angle for him to get the ball to Anthony behind the arc.

Here is Paul George again, refusing to leave Carmelo, even as Shumpert blows by West for a layup.

Here is another example of Indiana’s focus on staying near three-point shooters.

Now, no NBA team is going to be particularly worried about Tyson Chandler’s post game. There aren’t many (any?) coaches who would send a double team at the offensively challenged former Defensive Player of the Year. Especially if they had Roy Hibbert guarding him.

But here, Chandler establishes incredibly deep post position. He has both feet in the paint and Hibbert on his back.

Still, no Pacers rush to the paint. They stay home, only giving some token help as they realize Chandler is going up with the shot. Really, moving into position to get the rebound is the only thing that pulls them away from the four Knicks standing around the arc.

This is the Hibbert factor. Especially with Tyson, but also on penetration, the other Pacers are fine with not rushing to help on a ball handler attacking at the rim. They know the big fella adds a last line of defense. His ability to protect the hoop means that even layups are tough to convert, so the percentages still favor staying home on the shooters.

“Our best three-point-line defense is Roy Hibbert,” said Vogel. “What he gives us at the rim allows us to stay home on three-point shooters in the pick-and-roll game and push up on them when there are long closeouts.”

Chandler is seeing the result of that. With Indina’s defenders hugging New York’s shooters around the arc and Hibbert (and David West, when New York doesn’t play four smalls) rarely leaving the paint, there is always resistance inside. The only soft spot is the midrange, an area where Knicks players not named Carmelo become non-threatening.

“They’ve been really packing the paint and allowing us to take the free-throw-line jump shot [while] running us off threes,” said Chandler. “What we’re not doing a good job of right now is the draw-and-kick game, and that’s what we’ve been great at throughout the season. We’ve seen glimpses of it throughout the playoffs. When we’re at our best, we get in the paint and we find the open scorer.”

This clip shows one of the most extreme examples of an Indiana defender staying home no matter what. The Knicks run Pablo Prigioni through a maze of screens, which concludes with him taking a dribble handoff from from Amar’e Stoudemire. D.J. Augustin, who is chasing Pablo, gets completely taken out of the play by the crafty action.

Prigioni has a full head of steam and an open lane to the hoop.

Lance Stephenson (guarding Jason Kidd on the wing), Sam Young (guarding Shumpert near the baseline on the perimeter) and David West (guarding Kenyon Martin near the hoop) are all in normal help position. In a typical defensive rotation, Stephenson would be the one to slide over to stop Prigioni’s penetration.

But he doesn’t. Lance hedges towards Pablo, but decides to stay with Kidd. Prigioni is not a feared penetrator, so Stephenson is confident to leave the assignment to David West, who steps up in the paint to thwart the threat.

Naturally, this leaves his man, Martin, open.

Wide open. Right next to the hoop.

Again, a normal rotation in this situation says that Young should dive down to cut off a possible pass to Martin. There are two attacking threats in the paint, so the first inclination should be to shut both of those off.

Young doesn’t do that. He is too concerned about Shumpert in the corner.

Rather than rotating to help stop what is essentially a 2-on-1 against West, he is worried about a pass that may never happen to a shooter in the corner who might not ever make — or even take — the shot.

It’s a decision that costs the Pacers two points.

Prigioni makes the easy pass to Martin for an even easier dunk.

In the end, Sam Young did a great job at preventing the theoretical three-pointer, but not so much when it came to stopping the actual, real-life dunk.

While it’s easy to blame Young here, he was just doing what he thought was right. He was just sticking to the plan.

He just prioritized the two threats improperly.

And that is the dilemma Indiana’s defenders face: How do you know when to abandon the Stay Home Always philosophy and just make the common-sense help?

David West articulated the struggle well.

“One thing we just can’t get caught in is feeling like we have to stay at home, not help on penetration, help on post-ups and help on iso’s,” said West. “We have to do both. I thought we did a good job [in Game 3] of guarding against both: guarding the three-point line and being in help position, not allowing our guys to be iso’d.”

It’s tough to do against dynamic ball-handlers like Carmelo Anthony and J.R. Smith.

But it might be the most critical strategic factor in Game 4.

For the Knicks part, that will be the goal: Making the Pacers choose wrong. To do so, New York will have rely on the ball movement that Chandler didn’t see enough of in Game 3. They will have to penetrate and kick out. They will have to force the Pacers’ defenders to make a choice between helping and staying home — and they will have to do so precisely enough and with enough conviction that Indiana’s players choose poorly.

If they can do that and get Indiana guessing wrong often enough, then Carmelo could have a field day at the same time that the Knicks’ role players rain threes all night. If New York can’t do that, then the Pacers suffocating defense will likely make this another low-scoring game followed by another off day where the Knicks’ players sound increasingly frustrated.

This whole series could hinge on these difficult, split-second decisions that each Pacer defender will have to make countless times during Game 4.

Help or stay home?

LeBron James is the best perimeter defender in the game. Tony Allen is probably the second best. After that you’d be hard pressed to find one better than Paul George. And he’s only in his third season.

He’s also only going to get better. Despite only being named to the All-Defensive Second Team, and not the First Team, George will use it as motivation for next year. “It feels good,” said George. “I take a lot of pride in my defense and playing defense. So that recognition, it’ll make me work to make First Team next year.”

He’s gained a lot of attention through three games against the Knicks for his rugged defense on Carmelo. Outside of a 9- to 10-minute period from the end of the third quarter to the beginning of the fourth in Game 2 (in which Melo scored 15 points), Paul has shut down Melo’ as much as anyone can in this league.

During the regular season, Carmelo shot the ball at a 44.9% clip. In this series against Indiana, he has shot 29-for-70 (41.4%). When he has been guarded by Paul George, via ESPN Stats & Info, Anthony’s percentage drops even further: shot 14-for-41 (34.2%). Also via ESPN Stats & Info, in Game 1, J.R. Smith and Carmelo were a combined 5-for-25 (20%) when Paul George was the primary defender.

There’s no equivalent to a shutdown corner in the NBA, but so far against the Knicks, that’s more or less what Paul George has been.

He’s making it tough for Carmelo to get a clean catch let alone get off a clean shot. He’s been using his length to disrupt entry passes, jab at the ball during dribble penetration and simply get in Carmelo’s air space as much as possible. Despite the size mismatch, Paul George has limited Carmelo’s ability to score on post ups. He’s been doing this by getting work done before Anthony ever gets the ball. He denies deep position, makes it tough to catch the pass and when Melo finally gets the ball there’s hardly enough time left on the shot clock, which forces him to shoot up well-contested shots.

“The ball in Carmelo’s hands in any situation is not a good proposition for us,” said Pacers coach Frank Vogel yesterday at practice. The solution becomes obvious: Keep the ball away from him as much as possible.

More and more teams in the NBA are buying into Tom Thibodeau’s “Swarm the Strong Side” defensive scheme. Those teams bring help defense when the ball handler is in the post or in iso situations. It’s becoming less and less common to find players who can guard one on one at an elite level. One of the main reasons that the Knicks only got off 11 three-point attempts in Game 3 was due to the fact that Paul George can defend Carmelo by himself, which means that his teammates don’t need to leave their matchups to help on Carmelo. When asked how unique it is to have a 23-year-old wing defender who can match up one-on-one with Anthony, Vogel said that “it’s incredible. It’s incredible.”

In addition to his suffocating defense on Carmelo he’s been able to use his long arms to play the passing lanes tremendously well. His length allows him to go for steals and still be able to recover to his man in time.

“Crafty” isn’t normally a word one would use to describe a player’s defense. However that’s the exact word I would use to explain the ways Paul George has made up for the size mismatch to defend Carmelo.

In this vido clip, George fights for position before Carmelo gets the ball, allowing him to receive an entry pass only after Iman Shumpert swings the ball to Tyson Chandler and then gets the ball back to the wing while Anthony gets better position. There are only eight seconds left on the shot clock when Melo gets the ball. Then while Carmelo is backing him down, Paul is able to poke the ball loose forcing Melo to throw up a shot with the clock winding down, which he contests extremely well.

Offensive players are usually the ones who dictate the flow. Whether it’s from the triple-threat position, post up or simply off the dribble, the ball handler is always trying to keep the defender on his heels. What’s amazed me about Paul’s defense is how he is able to dictate the flow. He does this by trying to never let Carmelo get comfortable.

“All I do is just try to make everything tough for him, make him shoot over me, just make it uncomfortable for him.” said Paul George at practice. “Whether he’s on the perimeter, he’s iso’ing, bringing the ball up, posting up, everything is: make sure it’s tough and over me.”

In this clip, where George is covering J.R. Smith in the left corner, Paul gets right up on Smith and forces him to make his move. J.R. would probably like to have a little space  to work, and when a defender gets up that close to you, it completely disrupts your rhythm. Smith ends up driving towards the basket, spinning baseline, pump faking and then throwing up a prayer as the shot clock nears zero. Paul falls neither for the spin nor the fake, stays disciplined, doesn’t draw a foul and is still able to contest the shot.

Here, Paul George denies Anthony ideal postion, first by deterring the entry then by pushing him out just a few feet further from the block than Carmelo wants to be. After the catch, Melo then has to make a move to get in for a closer shot, and despite Carmelo attempting to keep the George away from the ball, Paul was able to reach in and poke it loose with his long arms.

The Knicks try a little off-ball screen in an attempt for Melo to catch the ball while driving to the basket. Once again, Paul makes it near impossible to get a clean catch and look. (It didn’t help that Ray Felton throws an inaccurate pass behind a curling Carmelo.)

In the second half, the Knicks try almost the exact same play as in the previous clip. Jason Kidd throws a better pass, but George is still — somehow — able to get over a Chandler screen, stay attached to Carmelo, see the pass and reach through to force the turnover. How he even locates the ball, let alone deflects it by reaching under Anthony’s arm, is remarkable. Sometimes, with the improbable deflections he gets, it seems like Paul George is the only player on the court who is allowed to play with a lacrosse stick.

I’m always in awe when a player struggles offensively but still locks down on his defensive matchup. Despite Paul’s horrific shooting night in Game 3 (2-for-12 from downtown), he consistently disrupted Carmelo’s rhythm.

And as important as this has been in terms of slowing down Anthony, it is also critical to Indiana’s entire defensive strategy. Since George can hang with Anthony one on one, it limits the amount of help that other players have to give, and those other defenders can stay home on New York’s shooters.

“How we guard the three is predicated on trying not to double team as much as possible,” said Vogel. “There are times against a Carmelo Anthony where you have to.”

That’s the fear.

Vogel realizes that guarding Melo with one defender, even a Paul George-level defender, may not always be possible. If Anthony starts to go on one of his torrid scoring stretches, the Pacers may have to send another defender at him. That will spell double trouble as Melo’s box score lights up and his teammates find themselves more open than they have been throughout the series.

“We may have to double,” said Vogel, “because he hasn’t really gone off in those one-on-one situations yet, but we know he is very capable.”

Until then, the Pacers’ defense should triumph.

Not sending much help defense will continue to allow the Pacers to minimize the number of open three-point looks. No open looks equals less three-point attempts and makes. And if the Knicks make less three pointers? Advantage: Pacers.

One year ago, the Pacers were in this exact same position. They were the lower-seeded team, and they stole a game, and home-court advantage, by winning on their opponent’s floor. But they were not able to turn that advantage to take the series.

Instead, in Game 4, in Indiana, LeBron James and Dwayne Wade took over, combining to hang 70 points on the Pacers as they took the game — and soon the series.

Now, in the second round of the playoffs, just like last season against the Chris Bosh-less Miami Heat, the Pacers have a 2-1 lead. They are coming off a big Game 3 win, and they are in control of the series, with Game 4 slated for Tuesday night in Indianapolis.

Now what?

Will Game 4 be a repeat of last year or a sign of progress?

“Our next step for the growth of this franchise is our ability to maintain an edge after a playoff win,” said coach Frank Vogel after practice today. “We struggled a little bit with that in the Atlanta series. We’ve got a 2-1 lead, but we can’t get comfortable at all. This is a pivotal game, and we’ve got to come out hungrier than they are.”

He says that the next step is coming into Game 4 and getting a W. That will show a continuation of the growth that this team has shown since playing the Bulls tough in a five-game series loss in the first round in 2011. Last year, they took one step further by making the second round and putting a scare into Miami.

This year, it’s Eastern Conference Finals or bust.

David West thinks this year’s team is more experiences than the one that coughed up the 2-1 lead last year. “I think we’re a different team than we were last year,” said West. “For the most part, it’s about us. How we come out, what kind of focus we have. We can’t exhale, feeling like we’ve accomplished anything. Our mission is to protect our home court, and we haven’t done that. We’ve got to win one more game.”

Paul George, the team’s lone All-Star this season, believes that the key to maintaining that edge is to not have the mind set of a team that is ahead. He thinks they need to play Game 4 like they’re down 2-1.

Just like he expects the Knicks will.

“We should approach this game the same way they’re going to approach it: that it’s a must win,” said George. “We’ve gotta get this game.”

He believes that having gone through the Miami series should help everyone on the roster who was around last season to be better prepared this time around.

“We should know better now, being in that series and having the upper hand on the higher seed,” said George. “Just how much it takes and how much focus the other team is going to [have]. We’ve got to match that. We’ve got to match that same urgency that they’re going to come out and play with.”

West has the most NBA — and playoff — experience of anyone on the team. He is taking no solace in the 2-1 lead. He knows that a good team, especially one featuring Carmelo Anthony, can come out and erase this series lead in a hurry.

“A series can change in one game,” said West.

Yes it can.

In Game 3, for example, the series changed. The Pacers jumped out to a commanding lead.

But like Miami did last year, the Knicks can easily take that momentum back.

We can talk about all the Xs and Os in the world. But more than anything, the Pacers believe they have the talent and the game plan to beat the Knicks in Game 4. Now, all that’s left is the hard part: Coming out and getting it done.

They failed last year.

They think they have evolved, grown, matured, improved since then.

What transpires on Tuesday in The Fieldhouse will tell us whether that is true.

The Indiana Pacers were the best defensive team in the NBA this season. Before a major backslide/slack off in April, they were projecting to be one of the best defensive teams in league history. Nobody was close. No teams could score against them, and the impeccable defensive numbers could have been even better if the Pacers’ offense wasn’t one of the most-turnover-prone in the NBA.

Paul George was recognized by coaches for his defensive prowess. He made the All-Defensive Second Team.

Roy Hibbert, the team’s interior defensive anchor, got no such recognition. Eleven players (due to a tie in one case) made first or second team All-Defense, something voted on by the league’s 30 head coaches. Hibbert was not among them.

David West first heard this news today from a member of the media after the Pacers practice. Here is how that scene played out.

Reporter informs West that Roy didn’t make either team.

David West’s eyes almost bulge out of his head.

“He didn’t?” asked West.  … … … “No comment.”

Paul George, the second team honoree, was similarly indignant, but a little more verbose. “We both should have made it — EASILY,” said George. “Roy’s been the best center defensively guarding the rim — EASILY. He should have made it. If I made it, he should have.”

His coach, Frank Vogel, felt the same way.

“All I’ll say is that there is not a center in this league I’d rather have on my team defensively than Roy Hibbert,” said Vogel.

Here is how the vote finished.

(image via The Point Forward)

I hear the Pacers players. It’s impossible not to want your big fella, who you’ve bleed, sweated and teared with all year, to get some recognition. It’s hard to say exactly which big didn’t deserve their spot though. Joakim Noah, Marc Gasol and Tim Duncan were all incredible this year. Were they better than Hibbert? I’d say Gasol definitely was. I agree with the media members who voted him as Defensive Player of the Year. After that, it is so close between Hibbert, Noah, Duncan and even Serge Ibaka.

Ben Golliver and Rob Mahoney of The Point Forward added some nuance on the voting, questioning the most quizzical name on the list: Tyson Chandler, who was inconsistent at best this season as a defender and just got destroyed two days ago by Hibbert.

3. Who was the biggest snub?

Golliver: Gasol or Hibbert. The backbones of the league’s two stingiest units deserved to be the First and Second Team centers this season. Noah had a very strong case, too, but he missed 16 games this year, more than three times as many as Gasol and Hibbert combined. I wouldn’t be that upset if Gasol was relegated to the Second Team behind Hibbert during the same season that he won the media-voted Defensive Player of the Year award, but to essentially finish third behind two lesser candidates is frustrating.

Mahoney: This depends on how you choose to define a snub. Chandler’s presence on the First Team creates all sorts of problems the rest of the way, and indeed sets up Gasol and Hibbert as two prime choices. In Gasol’s case, we have the Defensive Player of the Year, a player well-worthy of First Team consideration who only nabbed five (out of a possible 29) first-team votes. Chandler, by comparison, received nine first-team votes, while also tripling up Gasol in second-team nods (six to two).  I’m not even sure how you would begin to build a case for selecting Chandler over Gasol this season.

Hibbert is also theoretically deserving of defensive accolades based on his stellar defensive season for the Pacers, but he’s a victim of the unfortunate dynamic of positional voting. Were I to cast a ballot by the current rules, I would select Gasol to the First Team and Noah to the Second Team, though the difference in defensive value between those two is unbelievably thin. That would leave Hibbert more or less where he is now — with the other honorable mentions — so long as we ignore the glaring Chandler inclusion in the middle of it all.

Still, I keep coming back to Iguodala, whom Ben mentioned off the top. He stands as the best defender to not be named to either team. Gasol was at least selected to one of the All-Defensive teams, and if Hibbert wouldn’t make my own squad I can’t rightly deem him a snub. But Iguodala had an underrated year as a defensive Swiss army knife in Denver, where he propped up a mediocre defensive team, transforming it into nearly a top-10 defense. That’s a profound impact from a wing player, and an achievement for which Iguodala doesn’t receive nearly enough credit.

Also worth noting: Kevin Garnett didn’t get a single vote?

d