The Atlanta Hawks are officially in the head of the Indiana Pacers. ATL has taken a firm hold in the mind of Indy and it shows from the facial expressions of Team President Larry Bird, to the body language of the players on the floor. The Hawks were able to get a strong showing from Jeff Teague again and ride his stellar play all the way to the finish line to grab Game 3 by a score of 98-85 at Phillips Arena in Atlanta. 

Jeff Teague has punished the Pacers all series long and had another fantastic game finishing with 22 points and 10 assists in 36 minutes of work. The Hawks, as a team, finished with five players in double figures, getting a strong contribution from DeMarre Carroll who finshed with 18 points on 6 of 8 shooting and also Kyle Korver who finished with 20 points on 6 of 9 from the floor including 4 of 7 from downtown. 

The Hawks did a great job defensively on the Pacers holding them to 37.6% shooting from the floor. DeMarre Carroll was solid defensively, holding Paul George in check and making him a non-factor. George did finish with a double-double logging 12 points and 14 boards, but George was only 3 of 11 shooting in the game. 

Lance Stephenson led the way with 21 points for the Pacers and David West finished with 16 points scoring 12 of those in the first half. Luis Scola, once again, was solid off the bench finishing with 17 points, but overall the Pacers simply did not impress once again.

So what is Frank Vogel supposed to do now besides go to the drawing board and figure something out for Game 4 on Saturday? Vogel has to be feeling the pressure for real now after another lackluster performance by his club. Indiana needs to play with some fire and quit looking so confused. The most confused looking Pacer has to be Roy Hibbert. With his 2 of 9 shooting tonight that takes his amazing shooting slump to 7 of 25 for the series. Hibbert is the biggest non-factor in the playoffs to this point and could be doing more harm than good. 

Paul George, for being a superstar, is not playing like one only taking 11 shots in this game and taking his time to inject himself into the action offensively. This is an offensively inept team and he really needs to take the initiative to look for his shot early and often.

But let's not take anything away from the performance of the Atlanta Hawks. They believe that they can pull this upset off and play the spoiler in the Indiana Pacers' drama. Atlanta may not take home the Larry O'Brien Trophy, but if they could eliminate the Pacers and make a few heads roll in the process they may feel that their season was ultimately a success.

Game 4 is Saturday in Atlanta and the Pacers might be playing for their playoff lives. Though they are only down one game, that one game lead that Atlanta has may be looking like a daunting task to the mentally strained Pacers.