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With nine games left in the NBA regular season the Indiana Pacers have put themselves in prime position to take the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

The Pacers have won five of their last eight games, including wins against against playoff teams in the New York Knicks and Chicago Bulls. Indiana recently closed a three-game game road trip with a pivotal 111-83 win against the Charlotte Bobcats – a team that had been neck-and-neck with Indy for eighth in the East.

"It was a huge game for us," Pacers’ guard Danny Granger said. "We’re in the eighth spot right now and we have Milwaukee and Charlotte trailing us.  To get this win here pretty much puts them four games behind us because we have the tiebreaker."

Pacers’ head coach Frank Vogel reiterated the importance of the victory after the game.

"This was a huge win for our ball club," Vogel said. "We talked about going into the final weeks of our season as one of the hottest teams in the league… We isolated these two games (at New Jersey and Charlotte) as two huge road games we needed to have."

Despite being bulldozed in an embarrassing, 110-93 defeat Friday night at home against the Sacramento Kings the Pacers still find themselves in the driver’s seat for a postseason berth. As of this morning, the Pacers are up two games on both the Bobcats and the Milwaukee Bucks. Because Indiana also holds the tiebreaker by winning the season series against each team, both the Bucks and Bobcats would have to finish a game better than the Pacers to finish higher in the standings.

Even with the recent flurry of wins, Indiana knows it can’t take it’s foot off the gas pedal if a playoff berth is the goal.

"We can’t be content," Pacers’ center Roy Hibbert said. "We have to make sure we keep working and getting better because sometimes, when we’ve had success in the past, it has gone to our heads and we come out sluggish… Hopefully we can keep on growing and rolling and getting some wins.

"If we want to make the playoffs, we’ve got to finish strong."

The turnaround for Indiana couldn’t have come at a better time.

{AUTHOR_BOX}Just two weeks ago the Pacers were mired in a six-game losing streak and in the midst of a tailspin having lost eight of nine overall. The team found themselves in a heated battle for the final playoff spot that looked like it would go the distance. At 27-38, Indiana was tied with the Bobcats for eighth in the East and many around the NBA had the impression the battle between those two teams would go down to the last game of the season.

Talking to Pacers’ players and coaches, that’s obviously the last thing this team wants to happen.

"I hope not. Thats what we’re trying to avoid," Granger said. "Milwaukee’s playing better, and you never know. We have [six of our last nine games] at home so we wanted to complete this road swing with wins because we don’t want it to go down to the wire."

The atmosphere around the team is they don’t just want to make the playoffs, but intend on wreaking some havoc when they get there. Team’s clicking on all cylinders come playoff time sometimes use that momentum to push them through a playoff series – even though that’s easier said than done for an eight seed.

"We’ve said all along we expect to go into the playoffs as one of the hottest teams in the league," Vogel said. "We’re playing with a lot of confidence and we’re pretty excited about were we’re at right now."

The Pacers’ head coach is excited about being in the driver’s seat, especially considering his team’s favorable schedule to close out the season. As Granger stated, Indiana plays six of it’s final nine games at home – a place where they’re a respectable 19-16 so far this year.

"It could go down the stretch, but we’re in control of our own destiny and we’re just worried about the next game," Vogel said.  "We’re playing good basketball. We’ve got a deep team, we play as a team and it’s paying dividends right now."

If Indiana is able to hang on it will be the first time the team has made the postseason since the 2005-2006 season. To put the five-year drought in perspective, Jermaine O’Neal led the team in scoring that season and the midseason trade for Peja Stojakovic was pivotal in the Pacers securing the sixth spot in the Eastern Conference.

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