INDIANAPOLIS -- Top Indiana Pacers officials said Monday they supported their players who were suspended after Friday's brawl in Michigan and would consider options available to the team, including whether it can try to get the punishments reduced.

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Video: Bird Talks About Artest
Video: Watch Brawl
Slideshow: Images Of Chaos
Slideshow: Players, Coaches React
Survey: Artest's Punishment?
Survey: Blame For Fight?
Discuss: Your Thoughts?
Wil's Blog: What's Next?

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They also said they expect to win with what they have.

"We want to make it clear that we are going forward with this team as it is," Pacers CEO and President Donnie Walsh said at a press conference Monday afternoon. "We feel we have a deep, talented team. We feel that we have an awful lot of good basketball players.

"Players will start coming off the injury list. We will also explore other avenues we can to improve the team, although that's not set yet. Pretty generally, we intend to compete, and to win, on a high level."

NBA Commissioner David Stern suspended Ron Artest the rest of the season Sunday for his role in Friday's brawl during a game against the Detroit Pistons. Two of his Pacers teammates, Jermaine O'Neal and Stephen Jackson, must miss a total of 55 games for fighting with fans during a melee that broke out near the end of the game.

Anthony Johnson will miss five games when he returns from the injured list and Reggie Miller was also suspended for a game.

Three Piston players received one-game suspensions and a fourth, Ben Wallace, was suspended for six games.

Pacers coach Rick Carlisle told reporters that he was disappointed with the suspensions and the portrayal of his players that were involved in the fracas.

"Right now the important thing to stress is that the excessive, negative portrayals of the last few days of our players is not consistent with what we know of them as a team," Carlisle said.

Player	Games Suspended	Salary	Salary Lost
Ron Artest (Indiana)	73	$6.2 million	$4.95 million
Stephen Jackson (Indiana)	30	$5.1 million	$1.7 million
Jermaine O'Neal (Indiana)	25	$14.8 million	$4.1 million
Ben Wallace (Detroit)	6	$6 million	$400,000
Anthony Johnson (Indiana)	5	$2.2 million	$122,222
Reggie Miller (Indiana)	1	$5.5 million	$61,111
Chauncey Billups (Detroit)	1	$5.5 million	$60,611
Derrick Coleman (Detroit)	1	$4.5 million	$50,000
Elden Campbell (Detroit)	1	$4.4 million	$48,888

"This incident is not representative of who these guys are as people," Carlisle said.

Carlisle said that he hoped the suspensions would be decreased, but stressed that the team would "continue to strive to get to a championship level."

"This is going to be a tough time for us, and we're going to get through it," Carlisle said. "Right now we have to move on from this, to the business of winning games."

Anthony Johnson, who was suspended for five games, read a short statement at the news conference and quickly left the podium.

"I sincerely feel the penalty is excessive," Johnson said. "I never went into the stands, and I never left the court area. People could certainly see what the conditions on the floor were like and the chaos on the Palace floor speak for themselves."

Walsh said it was unclear what options the team had for going forward in regard to the suspensions.

"When our owner is clear on his thoughts, we will make a statement at that time," Walsh said. "Until then, we will not make a statement on the incident or the punishments."

Artest's Future?

Artest, the most severely punished for the brawl, has been suspended a number of times in the past few years. On Monday, a reporter asked Pacers President of Basketball Operations Larry Bird about Artest's status with the team.

"Right now, we're backing Ronnie 100 percent," Bird said. "Who knows about the future of any of our players, but we will support Ronnie, and we're behind him, and when we get down the road, we can answer that a little bit further."

A reporter asked Walsh whether the actions of Artest, leading to a suspension for the rest of the season, could be interpreted as a breach of contract, and whether the Pacers could therefore void the pact to free money for others.

"There are 150 questions that are exactly like that one that are not answered in this memo that we received (from Stern)," Walsh said. "It isn't that particular question, but it's very difficult to sit here and say what could happen, because we're not quite sure what could happen."

Bird stressed the Pacers support Artest, whom he considers "one of the top 10 or 12 players in the league."

"He's a phenomenal athlete and a phenomenal basketball player," Bird said. "We'll just have to look down the road and see what we're going to do."

Previous Stories:

• November 22, 2004: Artest Apologizes, But Calls Suspension Unfair
• November 22, 2004: Massive Suspensions Gut Pacers
• November 20, 2004: Three Pacers, One Piston Suspended Over Brawl
• November 19, 2004:Basketbrawl: Fight Between Fans, Pacers Ends Game