NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: PISTONS v HEAT

May 30, 2005

Dwyane Wade

DWYANE WADE: Getting the win on their home floor, the first round in a hostile environment. That's the main thing, just gutting it out when things weren't going right, when they had the lead, and we came back with a team effort to get the win.

DWYANE WADE: It's just about confidence. Game 1 I was out of rhythm and we hadn't played in 11 days and I missed some shots and I was out of rhythm. Games 2 and 3 I've been in rhythm so hopefully I continue to do it.

DWYANE WADE: (Laughing) Well, when I'm hitting that jumper, my confidence does rise and it opens up a lot of things for my teammates. I will continue to shoot it. If I miss some in a row, I will continue to shoot and continue to attack at the same time. Whatever the game gives me, I'm going to try to take it and hopefully I'll prevail.

DWYANE WADE: I'm just playing and just doing what I can to help my team win. I mean, Lindsey does a great job, he's shorter, a little quicker, so he does a great job of pressuring, but at the same time I feel very confident that I can get the shot when I want a shot. This is about taking a good shot, and that's what I was trying to do last night.

DWYANE WADE: It's length with Prince and it's quickness with Lindsey. You try not to play around with Lindsey too much. You want to go by him, and with Tayshaun, you don't want to settle too much because he's a great defender when he can use his length; he's one of the best. It's just about the theory of the game. When Lindsey is thinking if I'm tired, then I'm not going to be bringing the ball up because he will get all up in you from 94 feet.

DWYANE WADE: It's going to take a lot of will. The game isn't going to be easy for either team. It's going to be whoever makes the plays they need to win. The last three games, every game has been tied with six minutes left, and fortunately we were able to win two of the three. We're only up two games to one. We have to come out and not worry about being on the road, come out and worry about feeling overall that we have a better team and we have to play like it.

DWYANE WADE: It's just not now, I always feel confident that those guys look at me to do different things on the court, to probably make a shot here and there, but when I'm out, I'm always counting on guys that are going to step up. They did it yesterday. I'm glad they did it so people will stop saying that this is a two-man team. This is a team -- basketball is a team game. It takes 12 guys to win, not two. So I'm glad everybody stepped up, made the shots, and now we can move on from it being just a two-man team.

DWYANE WADE: No, I'm not surprised. It happens. It happens to the best of us, especially when your competitiveness gets going. We had a meltdown, it just wasn't the last two minutes. It was probably eight or six minutes left, we started getting frustrated with the calls. I mean, it just happened with them a little later in the game.