"I would if I didn't see what I see every day -- spirit, focus, effort," Frank said. "If I saw a bunch of guys that had horrible body language and wasn't receptive to coaching, then I would be very concerned. But what I see, quite frankly, I'm encouraged."

There are nights to forget: a defenseless game in Washington, a let-go-of-the-rope fourth quarter in Orlando, a dreadful start at home Tuesday against Indiana. But overall, they have fought hard -- none of which matters when they're still searching for their first win. They almost had it over the weekend but lost at Miami on a Dwyane Wade 3-pointer with .1 seconds left.

"Mentally, we're in a good place," insisted Jarvis Hayes, one of the injured whose services are sorely missed. "Obviously, we want to win. From a defensive standpoint I think we've made strides where we need to make. Offensively, I don't think we have a problem scoring the ball. We just got to know when to take good shots and when to get in our sets and be more efficient."

PACERS 91, NETS 83: The Nets, being drastically shorthanded, can ill afford a bad start. And that's exactly what happened Tuesday at home -- twice. The Pacers scored the first nine points of the first and third quarters, and the Nets found themselves in a hole they never could escape. The Nets had just eight available players for the fourth time in five games. Overall, they held Indiana to 39.2 percent shooting, but the Pacers had those two big runs that eventually negated big nights from Chris Douglas-Roberts (career highs 27 points and 12 rebounds) and Brook Lopez (26 points, season-high 16 rebounds).