With just a few weeks remaining in the 2010-11 regular season, the Indiana Pacers are clinging to the eighth, and final, playoff berth in the Eastern Conference.

They enter Monday night’s action with a one-game lead over the Charlotte Bobcats and a two-game edge on the Milwaukee Bucks with just eight games left. 

If a lead of just one game seems too close for comfort, it is. Indiana and Charlotte were tied for the eighth seed as recently as two weeks ago, but following a head-to-head win last Wednesday, the Pacers held a three-game lead over both of their competitors. A pair of disappointing losses (Kings, Pistons) ruined a previous stretch of five wins in seven games. Regardless, a one-game advantage still allows them to control their destiny.

That’s easier said then done, especially given the team’s inexperience when it comes to not only playoff races, but the playoffs themselves.

“We are a young team. We start a rookie. Tyler [Hansbrough] is a rookie, basically, because he didn’t play a lot last year,” said Danny Granger, who played sparingly when the Pacers made the playoffs early in his career. “We had a second-year point guard in Darren Collison and a third-year center. We really might have the youngest starting lineup in the league.”

Granger isn’t far off. The average age of Indiana’s starting lineup is a mere 23.8. By my count, only the Oklahoma City Thunder (23.4) have a younger first five. With that said, the Pacers have much less experience. They have a combined 14 years of experience (Granger has six of them), while the Thunder have 23 combined NBA seasons.

With that youth comes immaturity, but these Pacers insist they aren’t overly concerned with how the Bobcats and Bucks are doing down the stretch.

“I always hear it in the back of my head, but I try to stay focused,” Roy Hibbert said of paying attention to their competition for the No. 8 spot. “Whatever Milwaukee and Charlotte does is not in our control, but it’s out there and people are saying that they are coming up behind us.”

Hansbrough, who has blossomed since the All-Star break, had a tremendous amount of success at North Carolina, which has helped him compartmentalize the day-to-day changes in the standings.

“It’s not hard for me because I’ve always had the philosophy that if you take care of your business, then you don’t have to worry about what other people do,” the forward said when asked if he pays attention to the scoreboard. “At the same time, if we’re losing some games then I’m going back to see what Charlotte and Milwaukee did.”

This may be Hansbrough’s metaphorical rookie season, but Frank Vogel does have a true freshman in his starting lineup. Paul George has impressed enough to start, while Mike Dunleavy’s injury and the up-and-down play of Brandon Rush certainly helped.

If the season ended today, the Pacers would be one of only two teams in the playoffs with a rookie among their first five -- New York’s Landry Fields is the other.

“For the most part we know if we continue to play the type of basketball we are capable of everything will take care of itself and we’ll be playing come the postseason,” George said. “We don’t necessarily look at the standings, but we are aware of our seeding and ultimately where we want to be.”

Granger is the only player left over from Indiana’s last trip to the playoffs, when they lost in the first round to the Nets (2006). Among their imports since then, T.J. Ford (two appearances with Toronto), Dahntay Jones (once with Memphis), Solomon Jones (twice with Atlanta) and James Posey (two championship rings) have any postseason experience.

Dahntay is the only player among those four that has played significantly in the last two months. 

Vogel, as positive of a coach as Jim O’Brien was negative, believes fully in his “kids” and in Boston he spoke about the playoffs as if the Pacers had already locked up a berth.

“They learned what a playoff environment is like on the road,” said Voegel after a 101-90 loss to the Celtics.

“This will be a learning experience for us when we get in the playoffs this year. We’ll look back at this game and understand what the officials are going to be like.”

The race for the top seed in the conference is as wide open as the battle for the lowest, which means that the Bulls, Celtics or Heat could await the Pacers if they handle their business over the next few weeks.

While a deep playoff run is not a reality for the Pacers, a taste of the playoffs would work wonders for a team that is starting to see their rebuilding plan yield some positive results.

“It would be huge for us, because I lot of us haven’t experienced it,” Granger said. “I did my first couple of years, but it would be great to play a team like Chicago or Miami to see what that type of basketball is like.”