Chris Bosh, here battling with former teammate Rasho Nesterovic back in January, may refuse to admit he's frustrated by his club's play but he's not been happy. (Darron Cummings/Associated Press)

It may not be a good idea for anyone on the Indiana Pacers to push Chris Bosh around too much on Sunday afternoon.

They might get an elbow in the head right there on national television (CBC Sports, CBCSports.ca, 12:30 p.m. ET).

Bosh was one unhappy fellow on Friday after his Toronto Raptors (23-43) lost for the seventh straight time, despite putting in a solid effort and taking the Detroit Pistons to overtime.

Someone asked if he was frustrated.

"Frustrated? Stop using that word, 'frustrating,' " said Bosh, who after winning a gold medal with the U.S. Olympic team in Beijing last summer watched the rest of his season go into the toilet.

"Where do you all get that word? Use another word. You all got a thesaurus around?"

OK. How about crabbed, discontented, discouraged, disheartened, resentful, stymied?

"I'm not upset. You compete, you play the game, you play to win, if you come up short then that's what it is. Nobody's frustrated around here.

"When you lose a game, of course you want to win, but it is what it is."

What it now is for the Raptors is a chance to play out the string for their last 16 games and hope for a high draft pick come summer.

Trade banter trails off

By this time in the schedule, all talk should have been about how the big trade of last off season between the Pacers and Raptors is playing out.

That one sent T.J. Ford, Rasho Nesterovic and a pick that turned out to be Roy Hibbert to Indiana for Jermaine O'Neal and a draft choice.

Ford's been all right, Nesterovic is coming off the bench behind Hibbert, and O'Neal, of course, is now in Miami in favour of Shawn Marion.

The matchup between point guards Ford and Toronto's Jose Calderon also isn't a fair comparison right now because the latter, who played behind the former when both were with the Raptors, has been badly hampered by a hamstring all season.

What's strange about Toronto is that individually there's some talent there, with Bosh putting up all-star points (26.8 a game over the last six), Andrea Bargnani, the former whipping boy of the crowd, finally showing the form that made him a first overall pick, and Marion, who can play.

But as a team, they don't do enough to win and now have nothing to look toward.

Bargnani, who is averaging a strong 14.7 points a game, is carrying a flu bug that may keep him out Sunday.

Need to regain some pace

Indiana (28-39), however, has much to play for, sitting in what's essentially a four-way tie for 10th in the Eastern Conference, two wins back of Chicago and Milwaukee, who share the final playoff spot.

And the Pacers need to break off a recent slump that has seen them drop two straight and three of four.

"You can only cover so much ground if you win," Ford said. "With us losing, it's not helping us put pressure on any of those [other teams].

"At some point, either we're going to put some games together or we're not."

Playing without injured stars Mike Dunleavy (out for the season) and Danny Granger (another week or so) isn't helping.

Hibbert, the seven-foot-two-inch centre from Georgetown, has impressed coach Jim O'Brien enough to get into the starting lineup, but that hasn't stopped the boss from using a little tough love about his defence.

"The game is played at both ends of the court, and you need to have a balanced attack offensively and defensively if you're going to win in this league," O'Brien said.

With files from the Associated Press