As far as improvement goes, the Spurs had a lot to be happy about Tuesday night. David Robinson left his courtside chair in the fourth quarter, Antonio Daniels remembered what it was like to hit a 3-pointer and Gregg Popovich ? surprise, surprise ? felt no need to question his team's resiliency.

The Spurs, however, were left to count up only moral victories. Because New Jersey point guard Jason Kidd also made some considerable day-to-day progress, the Spurs will have to wait at least one more night for another notch in their win column.

A day after missing 16 of 17 shots, Kidd scored 28 points to lead the Nets to a 92-86 win in front of 17,701 at the Alamodome.