NET NOTES

MIAMI – Net coach Lawrence Frank was obviously distraught. The words came with difficulty. But when they came and gave praise to his team, they arrived without any mention at all of Nenad Krstic.

“I thought we had a tremendous effort. We had five guys who really, really busted their tails,” said Frank. “Jason [Kidd], Vince [Carter], Richard [Jefferson], [Jason] Collins and [Lamond] Murray. And Jacque [Vaughn] was in there. It’s a shame we lost this game.”

The only player with significant minutes omitted was the 22-year-old Krstic, who took the loss in the locker room as hard as any player.

“I feel very bad. It’s very tough loss,” said Krstic, who had one point in 29 minutes. “What can I say? To play like I played in a big game like this? I played most of the time bad in this series. I don’t know the reason. I couldn’t get a rhythm.”

Or any sympathy from his coach.

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OK, Jefferson admits it. He was hurting.

“I was playing well the first game,” said Jefferson, who shared team-high honors with Carter at 33 points in last night’s loss.

“I hurt my ankle. Even though I was out there playing I wasn’t 100 percent. But there’s no complaining about it. There’s really not too much time to be hurt in the playoffs. I couldn’t get to the free-throw line. I think part of it was I couldn’t get a break, and some of it wasn’t I didn’t have my normal explosiveness, my normal quickness to get by defenders.”

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Cliff Robinson was apologetic, and the Nets sounded understanding – at least publicly – after the NBA drug-policy offender visited them Monday in New Jersey.

“He’s upset still,” said Murray. “Tough situation. Apologized for putting us in this situation. That was basically it.”

Kidd clarified a TV report in which he was quoted second-hand: “I wasn’t unhappy [with Robinson]. It was disappointment. . . . As teammates we have to support in time of need and not criticize.”