Paul George lashes out at Indiana Pacers teammates after latest loss

Paul George, the Indiana Pacers superstar, lashed out at his teammates after suffering a 115-114 home defeat to the Minnesota Timberwolves on Tuesday night. George top-scored with 37 points but the Pacers got out-scored 28-24 by Minnesota in the fourth quarter of a close contest at Bankers Life Fieldhouse.

The Pacers went into last month's All-Star break on a six-game losing streak, which triggered a significant amount of Paul George trade chatter during the NBA Trade Deadline. However, Indiana resisted trading George and came out of the break with a sense of urgency, defeating top-tier teams such as the Houston Rockets (on Feb. 27) and Atlanta Hawks (on Mar. 5). However, the Pacers are once again playing lacklustre basketball, especially since their 109-100 away defeat to the Boston Celtics last Wednesday.

"There's no urgency, no sense of urgency, no winning pride. This locker room is just not pissed off enough. We should have a professional approach, man, and defend our home court, especially to a team that's not even in the playoffs. That's what it comes down to. As a team, we've got to have grit, and we've got to own up, man up," a furious George said after Tuesday's defeat to the young Timberwolves.

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The seventh-seeded Pacers (37-37) are just two games ahead of ninth-seeded Chicago Bulls (35-39) and are not guaranteed to be making next month's playoffs. "At this point in the season, you don't have games like this, being up four with under a minute and letting an opponent come in and beat you, especially a young team. You don't give that up. It's a very frustrating loss," added George, while speaking to reporters, via ESPN.

The Pacers will now set off on a taxing, three-game road trip against top teams such as the Memphis Grizzlies, the Toronto Raptors and Cleveland Cavaliers. "It’s tough losing a game here that we need, knowing that we don't play well on the road. When we lose focus here, I'm not sure where our head is going to be as a team tomorrow. I'll make sure to gather these guys around and let them understand, man, that we've got to win. That's the only thing that's important. The only thing that should be motivational is winning."

Paul George is averaging 22.8 points, 3.2 assists and 6.4 rebounds in his seventh NBA season. George is reportedly planning a move to hometown franchise Los Angeles Lakers when he becomes a free agent next summer.