I'm having trouble shaking the near-euphoric feeling smothering the basketball lobe of my brain since the Pacers win over the Thunder last night. Big deal, right? The Pacers were supposed to beat Oklahoma City. Yes, but there was beauty in the ugly W because teams don't benefit from style points and the Pacers lost big on style last night.

Maybe my happiness is rooted in the fact that the Pacers of the past couple of years liked to pose and try for style points at the risk of losing, when what was really needed was everyone in Blue and Gold diving into the muck to grab hold of something substantive, namely a W. Almost as if it was better to blame an ugly loss on poor effort than to spill your guts and still lose to an inferior team.

NBA W's are blind to circumstances beyond your control. They pay no mind to "Yeah but..." excuses in the wake of defeat. There would've been no soothing a lousy loss last night by grasping onto Dunleavy' knee, Rasho's ankle or Troy losing his pre-game meal. Nope, NBA W's are absolute. You got a problem, take it up with the loss column. Last night the Pacers had to spill their guts (not literally like Murph, but figuratively like T.J.) to scrape up a win which is what a team of substance, not merely style, and character does consistently.

Maybe that's why I still feel so good about the win. I guess I'll just enjoy it until this dosage of euphoria wears off at tip time in New Jersey tomorrow night.