The Pacers are desperately flawed and won't sniff 50 victories unless Larry Bird makes some moves – soon – to fix what's broken.

Understood, it's been just eight games, four wins at home, four losses on the road. Understood, the Pacers have six new players and have lost their three best defensive players – Ian Mahinmi, George Hill and Solomon Hill. Understood, the Pacers are attempting to re-invent themselves, morph themselves from a plodding, prehistoric half-court team to one that dreams of becoming the Golden State Warriors of the Eastern Conference.

I understand this, too, understand it with great clarity after the Pacers avoided the ultimate hoops indignity by holding off the winless Philadelphia 76ers, 122-115, in overtime.

The Pacers are desperately flawed and won't sniff 50 victories unless Larry Bird makes some moves – soon – to fix what's broken.

I'll save Bird the phone call – he usually calls collect – and tell you what the Pacers need and need right now if they're going to contend for a top-four playoff spot in the Eastern Conference:

-A bigger shooting guard who can defend and will take more shots than the mere 10 field-goal attempts Monta Ellis had in the three games leading into Wednesday's game.

It's not that Ellis is so limited as a player, even though he's not nearly the player he was before he signed in Indiana. But when he's paired with another small guard, specifically Jeff Teague, he is a massive liability. There are a lot of reasons why the Pacers were 29th in the league defensively heading into the Philly game, but the lack of size and defensive ability in the backcourt is where it all starts. Ellis was especially spotty – being kind here – Wednesday night, finishing with nine points, six turnovers and a team-worst minus-five in plus-minus.

-A rim defender/shot blocker coming off the bench.

Bird knew this might be an issue, even after he signed Al Jefferson. Neither Lavoy Allen nor Jefferson is capable of guarding the rim, blocking shots or even altering shots. Right now, it's Myles Turner or…nobody.

There's no time to waste for the Pacers' braintrust, not with Paul George looking at free agency two years from now. George needs to know the Pacers are going to be a player in the Eastern Conference, or he's going to bolt before you know it. True, this team looked interesting and fun and explosive on paper, but on the actual court, they desperately lack a defensive presence, a real dog like Ron Artest, Lance Stephenson or even Solomon Hill.

Right now, the Pacers defense is like watching the Mannequin Challenge.

And they knew it.

Head coach Nate McMillan made no attempt, thankfully, to soft-pedal this victory or to suggest it was some kind of great accomplishment. The Sixers came in here without Ben Simmons, Nerlens Noel and Jerryd Bayless, and still took the underachieving Pacers to the edge of their worst loss in years. Who were those guys? Robert Covington. Hollis Thompson. T.J. McConnell. Gerald Henderson. And still, it took a Paul George jumper from the corner with 3.9 seconds left in regulation to send it into overtime.

"(It's about) having fun out there," McMillan said. "I think we're still new to each other, and at times, I don't know if maybe we're afraid to show emotions or what, but it didn't look tonight like we were having fun."

The one time Indiana played something resembling dogged defense in regulation, it came on the Sixers' penultimate possession. For 22, 23 seconds, the Pacers dug in, scrambled, switched everything, only to lose Henderson and watch him drain a late three that put the Sixers ahead by two points.

"That defense was the defense we've got to play for 48 minutes," McMillan said.

Exactly.

If there was any good news – and it was like a Clinton supporter learning that she had won the popular vote – it's that struggling Jeff Teague finally looked like the guy we expected to be Jeff Teague. The point guard scored nine straight points down the stretch before George's game-tying shot, and generally showed why he will ultimately be viewed as an upgrade over George Hill: Teague scored 30 points on 10-of-16 shooting and had nine assists, his best offensive game of the season.

"I stopped thinking," he said, "and just played. I've been thinking a lot, trying to figure it out, and I've been hard on myself. Tonight, when Paul (George) got into foul trouble, I decided to be a little more aggressive and just play, not think."

It's been a rough road for Teague, especially as George Hill continues to play well in Utah. But this is a new team for him. It's a new style offensively, one that's less free-flowing and more geared toward getting the ball into scorers' hands. It's a new style defensively; he noted that the Hawks tried to trap the pick and roll while the Pacers simply attempt to stay with and stay in front of the ball handler. And while Indy is his hometown, it's not always easy to come back home and deal with family and friends in your face and in your ear.

"Definitely, especially the way it (the trade) happened and me and George being friends, but it's basketball wherever you play it," Teague said. "It's been very crazy and I'm still getting used to it, getting tickets before games, doing something here, something there, it's different. I had nobody coming to games in Atlanta, so I didn't even use my tickets…I say 'no' (to people who want tickets) and then you've got people saying `You've changed' and all that. But it takes time."

When many of us looked at this Pacers team on paper, we liked what we saw. This would be a dramatically improved team that would win 50-plus games and earn a top-four seed in the Eastern Conference. Now, we've seen what they look like on the court, and even after just eight games, it's easy to see what needs to be fixed.

The ball is in Bird's court.

Time to let it fly.