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Pacers Will Have Homework Waiting When They Return From Vacation

In the last game before the All-Star break, a game that could have brought a third straight win and lifted them five games over .500, the Pacers had the opportunity to make a statement on Wednesday.

They raised questions instead.

Their 117-95 loss to Charlotte at Bankers Life Fieldhouse left them with a 28-25 record heading into a week-long vacation, with 29 games left to play – 15 at home, 14 on the road. They've squandered a portion of their friendly schedule, losing three of their last seven games at The Fieldhouse, and had to go overtime to win one of them.

This loss, their most one-sided of the season at home, was reminiscent of an 81-73 homecourt loss to Dallas in the final pre-break game two seasons ago, a laid egg nobody wanted to touch. They rebounded from that one to win six of their first seven after the break on their way to 56-win season and second consecutive trip to the Eastern Conference Finals, so it's not like the season is lost. But something will have to change internally for them to capture a playoff spot.

What they didn't do is lose to a bad team. Charlotte played hard and efficiently, running an active offense to perfection to get, a buffet line of good shots from the perimeter and on drives to the basket. It hit 52 percent from the field, including 12-of-28 3-pointers. It got to the foul line more often than the Pacers and outrebounded them, too. It also put on a clinic of how to play with a comfortable lead, taking their 17-point halftime lead and coming back to win the third and fourth quarters as well.

It's now won five of its last six games, some of them impressively. It beat the Lakers by 19 points at the end of a four-game road trip, then went home to beat Cleveland by nine, and most recently defeated Chicago by 17.

"They're a red-hot team playing with great confidence," Pacers coach Frank Vogel said.

The Pacers are not.

The Hornets were a difficult matchup because of the way they spread the court and forced 6-11 rookie Myles Turner out to the perimeter to defend at the 3-point line. He made some mistakes, but wasn't alone.

"It's something I'm working on, guarding fours," he said. "Something I'm transitioning to."

Turner scored the Pacers' first six points and appeared on his way to exploiting his matchup, former No. 1 draft pick Marvin Williams. The game was tied after the first period, but Charlotte's reserves broke it open with a 17-4 run to start the second quarter. Three of their six field goals were 3-pointers.

The Pacers had won all three games with the lineup that started this one, but Charlotte's dominance was enough to make Vogel if he can stay with it against every opponent.

"We've got to figure this out," he said. "When we play against a team with all five guys shooting threes, we've got to figure out if they group can do it. If they can't, we have to go small."

It wasn't all about matchups, though. The Pacers fired quick shots in transition, rushed awkward shots around the basket, threw sloppy passes, seemingly went for every shot fake and were generally out-hustled.

Combine that with the fact they let a 17-point lead late in the third period of Monday's win over the Lakers slip away, and their inability to put together a consistent stretch of play since November and it's enough to make one wonder about their mental toughness and focus.

Paul George, who led the Pacers with 22 points, and C.J. Miles admitted the Hornets played harder. But they thought that was something that evolved during the course of the game, rather than the mindset they took into the game.

"I don't think this group was looking at vacation anytime early," George said. "We were all in it and prepared to come out and play tonight. They just took it to us. They wanted to get this win...more than we wanted to get this win.

"We've still got a lot of fight in us. We want to do the right thing, and we have the pieces to do the right thing. We're struggling to find how we consistently do the right thing."

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