At the beginning of the season, most of us were hoping the Pacers would make the playoffs, finishing with the 7th or 8th best record in the East.  It looks to me like that's where we're still headed.  Boston, Orlando, Miami, Chicago, and Atlanta are flat-out better than we are.  Milwaukee and New York are a little better.  The Pacers appear to be noticeably better than Toronto, New Jersey, Washington, Charlotte, Cleveland, and Detroit--and a little better than Philadelphia.

So far, we have won 3 games against teams deemed "better" than us:  Miami, LAL, and Denver; we have lost one game against a team I am calling "worse"--Philadelphia.  It looks to me as if we are on course--perhaps slightly better.  A season never goes smoothly or predictably in the short run.  We will continue to have some surprise wins and some disappointing losses.  We will have depressing slumps and satisfying winning streaks.  That's what young and fairly talented teams do.

Barring serious injury, I think we're still okay.  Remember that after the Collison-Murphy trade, Larry Bird talked about how hard the Pacers would be working to make one more trade.  He said. "we're not good enough yet." Unfortunately, such a trade was not to be had.  The work will have to continue later.  In the mean time, I believe we are still headed for a playoff spot.  that is an important jump.