Ron Artest finished his post-practice workout and walked to face the cameras with his jaw set and hands clasped behind his back like a soldier.

The Pacers forward, his words clearly rehearsed, was anxious to broadcast the message that he was wrong to question coach Isiah Thomas' game plan following Sunday's Game 4 loss to the Celtics.

``We had just lost a game, and I was bad,'' Artest said, sounding for all the world like a grade-schooler facing the principal. ``That's what that was. Everybody knows that we have to execute better, and that's the problem.''