Lawrence Frank spent most of pregame talking about how encouraged he was with everything he was seeing from his depleted team. Less than two hours later, Frank probably wished he could close his eyes or at least cover them.

The team that fought Miami to the final seconds before losing on a Dwyane Wade three with one-tenth of a second left on Saturday wasn’t the same one that played the Pacers last night.

These Nets battled but after it was too late and dropped to 0-11 after a 91-83 loss to the Indiana Pacers that wasn’t as close as the score would seem.

It wasn’t a lack of effort. The Nets played hard. We’ve seen many games where they fall behind early and never come back.

The Nets came back, despite having just eight guys. But they can’t afford to fall behind early, not with so few guys, not when the same eight guys have to play tonight in Milwaukee. Three guys played at least 42 minutes and now they have to come back and try and stop Brandon Jennings.

Everyone is expecting the Nets to be gassed and for Jennings’ fast, fresh legs to wear out their tired wheels. But this is the type of game the Nets could win or at least stay in because you’re already thinking they’re going to lose.

The night after they fell apart late against Orlando no one expected much from them in Miami, and they played one of their best games of the year and came so close to that first win. So give them at least a shot to be in the game and then see what happens.

There were some unhappy people in the Nets’ locker room after this game, a different unhappy than the other night in Miami and a few of the other close losses. This was a fed-up unhappy, which is another reason they should come out differently than last night.

This game was over early, despite the score. The Nets' defense was bad early. It was 9-0 less than two minutes in, they were down 28-12 with 3:11 left in the first period and after allowing 13 consecutive points over the second and third periods trailed, 63-46.

They came back with a 14-2 run. They gave their fans hope. They got within five in the third and six in the fourth. But when it came to making that big shot or consecutive big shots and getting multiple stops when they had to they couldn’t.

“There were stretches,” Rafer Alston said. “We're playing very hard with who we have. We had a stretch where we were playing well and coming up short. Now it's here one night, there one night.

“Those stretches were disheartening. There’s no call for that to come out and start that way. When you've got seven, eight guys there’s no room for that. We should be coming out flying around the court.”

The Nets weren’t flying around the court, or playing “[all] out” as Alston said they should be. The Nets put themselves in a hole quickly and spent the whole time trying to dig themselves out of it.

With eight or nine guys -- the number they’ve played with the past six games -- the Nets have started fine and stayed in the game. Not this game, not when everyone thought they would finally end their skid, especially after the way they fought in Miami. That’s why they were unhappy and they should be.

But they have a chance to do something about it. In a few hours, we’ll see how they respond.

Al Iannazzone covers the Nets for The Record (Bergen County, N.J.).