INDIANAPOLIS - Charlotte Bobcats coach Paul Silas didn't want to talk about rebounding differential or field-goal percentage or shot selection.

What troubled him so thoroughly about his team's 99-77 loss to the Indiana Pacers on Saturday was more gutteral, more elemental. Few things mattered more to Silas as a player than toughness, and to him, toughness was non-existent among his players.

"We didn't play tough. They banged us and we didn't respond. And that cannot be," Silas said. "Unless we're going to put everything out there ... "

The relentlessly positive Silas sounded as disappointed and frustrated as he has since replacing Larry Brown as coach slightly more than a year ago. He said there was nothing, either offensively or defensively, that he found uplifting about the Bobcats' performance.

Certainly that was true of the second half. After leading by as much as eight (primarily by outrebounding the Pacers by a dozen before halftime), the Bobcats imploded. They shot 22 percent in the second half, allowed the Pacers to shoot 51 percent, and were outscored 56-28.

"We started (the third quarter) by missing shots, but we stayed in for a while by getting stops," said Boris Diaw, who moved from center to power forward in this game, with Gana Diop making a cameo start at center. "Then we got confused some defensively.

"It's a battle the whole game. In the second half, they kept coming and coming and coming and we didn't respond well."

Diaw - who Silas often pinpoints as essential to this team's success - finished with two points on 1-of-8 shooting. He fouled out in 27 minutes after grabbing two rebounds and making two assists.

Asked about Diaw, Silas declined comment, saying he's already said enough in the past. Silas' silence said plenty about his frustration with Diaw's inconsistency.

The Bobcats got 20 points and seven rebounds from D.J. Augustin. Gerald Henderson (14 points, 10 rebounds) and Byron Mullens (10 points, 11 rebounds) both assembled double-doubles.

But none of that soothed Silas' profound sense that his team got punked Saturday night and never defended itself.

"I guess the biggest thing was just intensity," said Henderson, when asked about Silas' toughness concern. "Like in the lane, it's not just the big men - everybody has to get in there, help guys out. Just be ready for what comes at us."