After a gut-wrenching last-tenth-of-a-second defeat in Miami, the Nets are back home Tuesday to face the Indiana Pacers, and they could have as many as 10 players available for the first time since the sixth game of the season Nov. 6.

That was the night they lost Courtney Lee, who expects to come back Tuesday from the strained groin that has knocked him out of 4 1/2 games. But other than Lee, everything is pretty much status quo, as the infirmary is almost as thickly populated as the bench.

The Nets had eight players Saturday in Miami, as Bobby Simmons left the team earlier for personal reasons, but he could be back for Tuesday's game. Eight plus Lee plus Simmons and it would be like old times around the Nets. And the Nets insist the adversity they have faced will only make them better.

"They realize that we're without key guys and that helping each other is important, so I think they got on the same page to help each other on defense, being in the right positions, shrinking the floor, just working together as a team," Lee said. "Guys have been able to get their rhythm ... so they're only going to add when everybody gets back."

The Pacers defeated the Nets in two of three meetings last season. Danny Granger, whom the Nets passed over in 2005 to draft Antoine Wright, who was fifth in scoring last season (25.8) and is averaging over 24 per this season.

HEAT 81, NETS 80: It was another loss, but one that was more painful than any of the nine previous defeats the winless Nets had experienced. They battled the Heat on the road to the very end and then were stunned when Dwyane Wade lost the ball, recovered, fired and hit a 3-pointer with one-tenth of a second left to provide the win. The Nets had broken a tie with 4.1 seconds to play, but that was enough time to let Wade spoil the upset bid. The Heat survived through their work on the offensive glass -- 15 offensive rebounds, five in the fourth quarter -- and a banked 3-pointer by Quentin Richardson with 25.4 seconds remaining.