Candace Buckner

candace.buckner@indystar.com

If only someone could press the reset button on the Indiana Pacers' season and expunge every mention of the words "sprain," "soreness" and "bruise" ...

On Saturday night, the Pacers' injury report added another player and it's no coincidence Indiana lost another game.

Though Indiana fought and clawed back from a seemingly insurmountable deficit, the Washington Wizards closed out the 97-90 win at Bankers Life Fieldhouse. Adding to this pain of a sixth straight loss, starting center Roy Hibbert left the floor late in the first quarter with a bruised left knee.

Through seven games this season, the Pacers have already lost their top seven players to various ailments.

If this is supposed to be funny, the Pacers have missed the punch line.

"It's almost comical," point guard Donald Sloan said. "Just how it's happening. It seems game by game, it's something. Same story."

Once considered to have a sensible chance of stealing a low playoff seed in the Eastern Conference, the Pacers have morphed into a team that must rely on a career-scoring night from Solomon Hill just to recover from a 22-point deficit and even trot out rookie Shayne Whittington for the first minutes of his NBA career.

"I try to coach them with what I think is reasonable; a reasonable expectation or a reasonable standard for the situation," said coach Frank Vogel about the remaining collection of players now 1-6 on the season. "The minutes they're playing, the newness, the inexperience… I just try to have a reasonable standard."

Though the thought of Hill setting career marks on a nightly basis might not have been one of those standards, the current situation has presented him the opportunity. And Hill continues to take advantage.

Hill played his second straight game as the shooting guard and scored 20 of his game-high 28 points through the second half, igniting the Pacers on a rally that ended just short but gave the 17,302 fans something rare through the early season: a reason to cheer.

The first quarter was cover-your-eyes bad with the Wizards power forward Nene making more field goals (seven) than the home team (six), and the Pacers squandering possessions with 10 turnovers. Early in the second quarter, Washington opened a 36-14 lead. A do-over would have been nice. However, as the young, opportunistic Pacers have proven so far, they will eventually clean up their ugly messes and actually play the game of basketball. They did so again Saturday night. With a rotation that resembled something out of summer league, the Pacers sliced the lead down to 79-76 with 8:49 remaining in the game.

Other than Hill, no one player stood out. They just all made plays. From Damjan Rudež draining two 3-pointers in the second quarter to A.J. Price's pair of assists and three-point play in the fourth, the survivors did not submit.

"It just renewed confidence," Hill said. "We call it the 'gold team' … the third-string guys (from) last year. We're finding renewed confidence in the way we're playing and coach knows that if he wants to sub us in when we're fully healthy, we're ready to go."

Even so, the "gold team" still struggles to close out these comebacks. The Pacers worked the lead down to three points on three different occasions in the final quarter but could not climb over that obstacle.

When coming so close but watching the game slip away, there are always regrets.

"We have to just play. We have to play the game of basketball and we did that in the second, third and fourth quarter," Hill said, "but you miss out on the first quarter and they have that first jump and it's really an uphill fight from there."

After the game, Vogel shared the update that Hibbert will be "day to day." If he misses Monday night's matchup against the Utah Jazz, then no regular starter from the 2013-14 season will be on the floor for the Pacers.

David West (left ankle sprain) could be out until late next week. C.J. Watson (foot) maybe more. George Hill (left knee contusion) won't return until December. Rodney Stuckey (foot) and C.J. Miles (migraine) have pending evaluations to determine their future playing time. And the one that started it all: Paul George has months of recovery before even reasonably thinking about returning to basketball.

Four games will be played on the schedule before the first player (West) even returns to practice. So, there's little time to wait for restoration.

"It's definitely just the weirdest thing," Hill said. "We can't find any luck right now, but it's doing something for the guys that didn't see a lot of minutes last year. We know we're going to get those guys back, we know we're going to get them back healthy."

Follow Star reporter Candace Buckner on Twitter: @CandaceDBuckner.