By Arnie Stapleton
The Associated Press

ST. FRANCIS, Wis. - Gary Payton blamed his poor game on passive play and not pending legal action. Payton and two of his teammates were charged with assault hours after he was held scoreless for 3 1/2 quarters in Milwaukee's 109-96 loss to the New Jersey Nets in their playoff opener Saturday.

"I missed shots and then I stopped being aggressive," Payton said Sunday. "When I start missing shots, I start thinking about other things instead of staying aggressive and I usually don't do that."

But he swears he wasn't thinking about his trouble with the law stemming from a fight outside a Toronto strip club this month.

Payton, Sam Cassell and Jason Caffey surrendered to police in Toronto, where they were charged with simple assault, equivalent to a misdemeanor.

Payton was charged with three counts, Cassell was charged with two counts and Caffey faces one count. They are to appear in court May 30.

The players are accused of assaulting two men and two women outside a club after closing time April 11 while the Bucks were in Toronto to play the Raptors.

"We're not on trial for murder," Cassell said after practice.

Cassell also had a poor performance against the Nets on Sunday. Caffey missed his ninth straight game with a sore back.

Cassell also took exception to the notion that the case adversely affected his or Payton's play.

"Now he had a bad game or something's bothering him," Cassell said, mockingly. "Something is bothering him - he didn't play to his standards, and I didn't play to my standards. That's what's bothering us."

Coach George Karl, however, said maybe his backcourt was bothered.

"Any time that you've got a legal thing hanging over your head, there's probably some anxiety to it and some worry," Karl said.

But he called the real culprit in the blowout his own underestimation of the Nets' state of mind.

"I just think we caught a team that we thought was struggling and they came out with their A-game, with their championship attitude and dominated us," Karl said.

He said he had faith in his team bouncing back, especially Payton, whom the Bucks acquired from Seattle on Feb. 20 for Ray Allen.

"Gary probably had one of the worst performances I've ever seen him have," Karl said. "And I think he's going to be great for us on Tuesday night.

"I'm not worried about Gary. There was a lot of bad performances out there. And I'm excited. I'm excited about playing on Tuesday. My belief is nothing starts until someone beats someone else on their home court. Hopefully it starts on Tuesday."

Bucks general manager Ernie Grunfeld and Karl were told last week the three would have to return to Toronto. They decided the three would fly to Canada with their lawyers after the opener. The rest of the team flew to Milwaukee because Game 2 is not until Tuesday night.

"We're professionals," Cassell said. "You all don't give the Nets no kind of credit. They played a tremendous basketball game."

Payton said he wasn't preoccupied with the case: "I had a bad game and that's it. I don't worry about distractions."

Karl thinks the team has handled the situation professionally.

"We've addressed the problem and now it's time to put it behind us and go to work," he said.

The Nets dismiss the notion that legal matters will undermine the Bucks.

"They are a veteran ballclub," Jason Kidd said. "Whatever those guys are experiencing off the court is not going to affect the way they play."

The Bucks might have cleared another distraction: the rift between Karl and forward Tim Thomas, who was benched the last three weeks after refusing to re-enter a game in Denver last month.

Thomas was the only Bucks player to have a good game Saturday, coming off the bench to score 25 points in 31 minutes on 10-of-14 shooting. Karl is now leaning toward starting Thomas.

Kevin Willis gets one-game suspension for flagrant foul

SAN ANTONIO - San Antonio reserve center Kevin Willis was suspended by the NBA for one game without pay Sunday after he elbowed Scott Williams in the throat in the Spurs' playoff opener against Phoenix.

Willis will miss Game 2 Monday in San Antonio. As he was going for a defensive rebound, Willis threw an elbow that hit Williams in the throat with 29.3 seconds before halftime in Phoenix's 96-95 overtime victory Saturday.

Referee Scott Foster whistled Willis for a flagrant foul and ejected him from the game.

Williams lay motionless near the Suns' foul line for several minutes before being helped from the floor. Williams sprained his neck but returned to the game early in the third quarter.