Hours after the Pacers signed the free agent center for the rest of the season, Indiana overcame an early deficit and held off the Nets to improve to an NBA best 22 2 at home.

Bynum wasn in the arena. Vogel said before the game that the mercurial big man had returned to Cleveland and hadn had a chance to meet his new teammates yet.

But Indiana All Star starter, Paul George, isn concerned about Bynum reputation.

think it increases our chances [of winning a championship], George said. lot of teams have three centers. With us only having two, him being one of the best ones out there, it a no brainer to go after a talented guy like that.

didn play a great game, Vogel said. got to get under control.

Lance Stephenson, left out of the All Star game despite leading the NBA in triple doubles, added 14 points for Indiana. David West had 17 points and George Hill scored 10.

got to be a little more patient. We swinging for the fences a little too much in terms of trying to make some tight interior passes as opposed to making the simple play, said West, who had a game high seven assists.

Shaun Livingston scored a season high 24 points for the Nets, who couldn hold an early seven point lead against the Eastern Conference leaders.

Joe Johnson, an All Star selection, spent much of the night dueling with Stephenson and scored 16 for Brooklyn, which has lost three straight since starting January with 11 wins in 12 games.

play 82 games through the season and you going to have your ups and downs, and hopefully you ready come playoff time, Nets coach Jason Kidd said.

Stephenson, unhappy he was left off the All Star team, had words at times with the Brooklyn bench.

could care less if it personal, Johnson said. needs to talk it over with the coaches. I got nothing to do with it.

guys were active tonight and we got our hands on Air Jordan Fusion 4 some balls and we turned them over, Kidd said. didn capitalize as well as we wanted, but definitely an improvement from what we did the night before.

always comes through when we need him most, George said. shines in those moments. He really picks us up in those moments.

Livingston pulled Brooklyn to 85 83 with 5:10 to play, Air Jordan 2s but after an extended Indiana possession, Stephenson hit two free throws after being fouled by Johnson, then Hibbert slammed home a dunk.

The Nets wouldn go away, though. Hill hit one of two free throws with 18.6 seconds to play for a 94 90 lead before Johnson 3 pointer with 8 seconds left made it 94 93.

West then hit two free throws, rebounded Pierce missed 3 and hit one more free throw to make it 97 93. Williams hit a 3 with 0.4 seconds left, and the game ended after Scola threw the inbounds pass off Pierce back.

one thing we said was, Don throw Air Jordan 6 Rings it out of bounds, Vogel said. said, Throw it anywhere where it hits them or us.

The Pacers took their first lead at 19 18 on George 3 pointer. Livingston hit two jumpers and Johnson added another to put Brooklyn back ahead 24 19, but Indiana closed the quarter on a 6 0 run to lead 25 24.

Neither team could build a lead greater than four points in the second quarter, and the lead changed hands six times, with five ties. George driving layup with 6 seconds to play gave the Pacers a 46 45 halftime lead.

The Pacers outscored Brooklyn 12 2 Air Jordan 8s over Nike LeBron 11 the first 3:36 of the third quarter, building a 58 47 lead and prompting a timeout by Kidd.

Brooklyn responded with a 19 9 run to pull to 67 66. Indiana scored the next five points, but Alan Anderson hit a 3 pointer, Mason Plumlee made one of two free throws and the Nets trailed just 72 70 entering the fourth.