LeBron James and Chris Bosh Rip Miami Heat After Loss to New Orleans Pelicans

There are only so many excuses a team can make for why it is struggling. 

After the Miami Heat fell to the New Orleans Pelicans 105-95 Saturday night, LeBron James and Chris Bosh spoke out on the team's performance, per Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun Sentinel. 

Bosh was tired of the excuses:

"

We suck. We need to turn it around. There's no passion. There's nothing. ... We need some dialogue around here. On defense, we can't stop a nosebleed. This is unacceptable. If we don't change this, we will be watching the championship from home.

"

James also expressed his thoughts:

"

We all need to get on the same page and figure it out. I don't know what we're going to do, but we have to figure this out. 

There's too many excuses. Everything is an excuse. Something goes wrong? An excuse. Lineup change? An excuse. Turn the ball over? An excuse.

"

The loss for Miami was its seventh of the month, with earlier defeats coming in disappointing fashion to the Boston Celtics and Denver Nuggets—teams that will be fighting for ping-pong balls in the draft. 

Ethan J. Skolnick of Bleacher Report and Michael Wallace of ESPN.com gave their thoughts about what they saw from James' response in the locker room:

During the stretch of poor play, James has been sporadic, with four games below 20 points. Still, he has an average of 25.8 per game this month and two games over 40, including a 61-point performance against the Charlotte Bobcats.

As for Bosh, the big man has seen his production take a dip in March. He's averaging 15.5 points, 6.5 rebounds, 0.8 assists and 0.7 blocks, all down from his season averages. 

The Heat have a daunting task ahead. In their remaining 14 games, they will play the Trail Blazers, Pacers (twice), Raptors, Nets, Grizzlies and Wizards, not to mention the surging Knicks. 

Although the Pacers have struggled as well, they remain three games up on Miami for the crucial No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference. 

After downplaying the rivalry at the beginning of the season, Miami needs to use the games against Indiana as a chance to reclaim the crown.

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