Dallas Mavericks veteran Amar'e Stoudemire ripped his new teammates for Tuesday night's embarrassing 127-94 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers. Stoudemire didn't question the talent on the Mavericks' roster, but he did call out his teammates for not having a competitive mindset.
Stoudemire has been with the Mavericks for less than a month, but the 12-year veteran felt compelled to scold his teammates after being blown out at home by the Cavaliers.
"I came here to win, and we're (4 1/2) games out of being out of the playoffs, which is unacceptable," he told reporters after the loss, via ESPN. "This is something we can't accept. We've got to find a way to refocus. We've got to key into the details of the game of basketball. ...
"We've got the right personnel. We've got enough veteran leadership on this team to compete. We've just got to have that mindset to want to step up and truly compete. You want to play against the top players in this league. You want to show them that you've got what it takes to win. Tonight, we didn't do that."
He also elaborated on how the team needed to change its mindset.
"We can't cheat the game. We can't screw around in shootarounds and practices and joke around all the time and figure we're going to win games," said Stoudemire, who tallied 15 points and three rebounds in his 20 minutes of playing time. "This is the pros. It's the highest level of basketball. We've got to act that way. ...
"We should be a much better team than what we showed out there. This is a team that's competing for a championship that we played against. We should have stepped up to the challenge of competing with these guys and we backed down."
Mavericks star Dirk Nowitzki's struggles from the field continued, going 3 of 10, while point guard Rajon Rondo continued to flounder in the Mavericks' offense to the tune of four points and three assists. Injuries also continued to hamper center Tyson Chandler (hip) and forward Al-Farouq Aminu (shoulder), according to ESPN.
The loss marked Dallas' fifth in seven games.
