It's official: Cuban upset with Mavericks play

The Mavericks embarrassing loss to an Oklahoma City team playing without its top two scorers has led to the strongest critical comments Mark Cuban has made about his team this season.

In an email response to questions submitted by the Star-Telegram Tuesday, Cuban said lambasted the player’s effort and promised that unless the team plays to its level of talent, changes will be made.

 “It’s only one game, which I keep reminding myself of today,” Cuban said. “But let’s just say I wasn't happy with our preparation, execution or effort. Not only did it look like we had no idea what we were doing, but we did it without effort. The effort and energy, on both sides of the ball, by each player will decide their future with the Mavericks.

“If each player can't take the personal initiative to make every game important and play like it, I don’t see them being here next season.  The ball won’t always bounce the way we want it to, but every player can control their level of effort. If it’s not important enough to them to lay it out every game the rest of the season, they won’t be back. I don’t care what their contract is. I would rather turn over the roster 100 percent than subject fans to another game like last night.

”This team has the talent to win in the playoffs. But that’s only going to happen if all 15 guys know and execute their assignments and play every possession like it’s important.”

 The Thunder was playing without leading scorers Kevin Durant and Jeff Green, but built a 24-point lead late in the third quarter before the Mavericks mounted a comeback.

 After the game, Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle was critical of his team, saying: "I just thought that the first three quarters were just a pitiful display for a team that has aspirations to be in the playoffs and try to move up in the standings," Carlisle said. "We've seen this before, too many times.

 Cuban obviously agrees with Carlisle and now both will see if the players can respond. -- Jan Hubbard

Comments

[Don.Nelson]

> When you hear the hapless Carlisle sucking up to the fat, rich-boy owner, well, bad sign. You know RC is feeling the heat, feeling those angry, puffy-cheeked stares of petulance coming from the back-seat driver. Wasn't a fan of the Carlisle hire, but I gotta say I don't think he's the cause of the team's poor play. It's the players, Stupid! From the best to the least, new acquisitions and future HoFers included. Changes? Gonna be interesting. But anything short of a tear-down, is just shuffling flawed and/or bad assets.