Today was the media's first crack at the Mavs after their loss Monday night in Oklahoma City.

To review, here's what Cuban had to say about the Monday's loss, courtesy the Dallas Morning News (feel free to skip past this if you're already read/heard these):

"It's only one game, which I keep remindind myself of today. 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 (Monday) 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."

Today, Jason Terry was asked if Cuban's comments had been relayed to the team. Here's what Jet said:

"He said that 3 months ago. I think it was Sacramento game or something -- might not have been that long ago, but Sacramento, he came in town, he had a big speech, and he said it, and he meant it. So, like I said, everybody's on pins and needles around here, but this is the time of season for it. You gotta' be amped up, you gotta' feel like everything's on the line, and I think we play our best when we have that mentaility."

It's pretty clear Jet is referring to the Mavs 102-95 loss in Sacramento on January 11th.

Bouncing back tonight, and giving maximum effort against the Spurs will be easy. It will be absolutely shocking if the Mavs don't play like their hair is on fire tonight, even if they lose. The challenge will be to maintain that kind of effort every game, for the rest of the season. Because this team isn't good enough to coast.

1 Comments

B Griffin said:

Am I the only one who sees Josh Howard as a liability, not a good shooter , wont pass the ball
and sucks on defense,

March 4, 2009 8:39 PM

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