Bob Kravitz

bob.kravitz@indystar.com

This isn't a slump. A slump is a blip on the continuum, a momentary lapse, something that can be fixed with a tweak here or a correction there. A slump lasts two, three weeks, at least for an elite NBA team – or one that fancies itself as elite.

No, what the Pacers have going right now is a full-fledged collapse, a gag job down the stretch that doesn't look fixable between now and the start of the NBA playoffs. Forget about worrying about the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference Finals, something we all thought was a fait accompli as the Pacers were rushing out to a 33-7 start.

Worry about winning a couple of games down the stretch and playing decent basketball – and scoring more than 80 points - as the playoffs beckon.

For the first time all year, the Pacers are in second place, behind the Heat, in the race for the No. 1 seed. That was their vociferously stated goal from Day One. Now they've thrown it away, and they've done it at a time when the Heat has had its own struggles.

"Good for them (the Heat),'' Roy Hibbert said dourly. "We don't deserve it. Good for them. Whoever we see in the playoffs, we'll see, but we've got to figure things out…But we don't deserve the No. 1 seed.''

A slump? A hiccup? No, it's a whole lot more than that. After Monday night's 103-77 blowout loss to the San Antonio Spurs at Bankers Life Fieldhouse, the Pacers have lost 10 of their last 16 games and six of their last eight. After that 33-7 start, when they were the toast of the NBA and had everybody lauding their selflessness, the Pacers have now gone 19-16. That's not a slump. That's a month-and-a-half, two months' worth of mediocrity. That's who they are now.

This is just like the 2002-03 Isiah Thomas-coached Pacers, who ran out to the league's best record the first half of the season, then sleep-walked the rest of the season before getting eliminated in the first round by the Boston Celtics.

For too long, they've been acting like they actually accomplished something, like they should be entitled to officials' calls and special treatment. Paul George's play and his whining have been especially galling. Remember when we talked about him in the same sentence with MVP front runners LeBron James and Kevin Durant? That seems like a million years ago.

George has been ordinary, or worse, since the All-Star break. Hibbert has disappeared for long stretches of time. David West, the nominal leader of this team, has been inconsistent. Evan Turner, the late-season acquisition, has been miserable, especially on defense.

Monday night, Lance Stephenson was the only Pacer who played with urgency and energy.

It makes you wonder, where's the leadership going to come from? Where's the direction going to come from? This is still a young team, which gives you hope for the future, but makes you wonder about the present. Everybody, save for the perpetually amped Stephenson, appears to have gone in the tank these last two months.

Publically, Frank Vogel has put on a happy face – ah, we're just not hitting our shots -- but you sense that he's at his wit's end, too, looking for answers that don't exist. Listen, if he could have fixed it, it would have been fixed already.

Does he need to put a boot up somebody's rear? Clearly, he does. But that's not to say he hasn't read them the riot act already. We only see the public Vogel; we don't know that he hasn't grinded on them in private. Certainly, he had a long talk with his team after this game; he took an unusually long time to come out and address the media Monday night.

"We've had plenty of players-only meetings,'' Hibbert said. "We've had plenty of sit-downs with the team and coaches, some with upper management listening in. Maybe we should all go to group therapy and have an airing of grievances.''

This team is spiraling, and you sense it's beginning to splinter.

Second place.

For the first time all season.

"Maybe this will be a reality check,'' George said. "To be No. 1 and controlling our destiny, this is the time we could have had guys resting and really enjoying being in the position we were in. Now we're playing down to the wire. It's tough, but hopefully it lights a fire under us. Maybe we'll have a better understanding of what we need to do.''

Don't count on it. If the Pacers haven't gotten the wakeup call yet, they never will. This is a lost, wounded, fragile team that may never get off the mat.

The million-dollar question around town is, "Why have the Pacers fallen to pieces?''

I can tell you what the problems aren't:

Fatigue – There's this notion out there that the Pacers peaked too early, that they invested too much energy into earning that No. 1 seed.

Nonsense.

I could buy that if Vogel had played his starters extraordinarily heavy minutes and burned them out, but that's not the case.

If the 82-game grind is such an issue, how do you explain the San Antonio Spurs – average age 62 – running off an 18-game win streak this late in the season? And the Spurs are dealing with the Western Conference, not the lightweights in the East.

A word about the Spurs: They are beautiful to watch, and they will win the NBA title this time around. Offensively, they are a Matisse, a Picasso; the Pacers, who stand around a whole lot, are like a finger-painting. The lack of movement is excruciating. They never get easy baskets. They never get run-outs. They play at a snail's pace, except when Stephenson has the basketball. Fast break points Monday night: Zippo.

Boredom – Before this latest stretch of schedule, we heard how the Pacers needed to face top teams to pique their interest. How arrogant is that? It's one thing for the Miami Heat to be bored; they've actually won two straight NBA titles. But the Pacers act like they deserve the Larry O'Brien Trophy for winning the first half of the season.

Now they've faced the league's elite, and they've gotten stomped.

The trades/acquisitions – Listen, this decline started before Larry Bird traded for Turner and signed Andrew Bynum. Granted, Turner is a defensive sieve and Bynum is out indefinitely with a bum knee and may never play again for the Pacers, but they're not the reasons this team has gone south.

So what's the answer?

Here's my best guess: Immaturity. This is still a very young team, with a few exceptions. They didn't know how to handle success. They flew too close to the sun and got burned. And now they're looking up at the Heat in the standings.

"We're at the bottom in terms of how far you can fall,'' West said.

Sadly, I'm not sure that's necessarily the case.

Bob Kravitz is a columnist for The Indianapolis Star. Call him at (317) 444-6643 or emailbob.kravitz@indystar.com. Follow him on Twitter: @BKravitz.