NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: PISTONS v HEAT

June 2, 2005

Dwyane Wade

DWYANE WADE: Well, right now I'm just feeling pain. You know, I just made a quick move on a crossover and I guess I pulled a muscle by doing that. It's just pain right now. I expect that, so hopefully I'll feel better in the morning.

DWYANE WADE: Yeah, I tried to come back because we've got a lot of guys on our team that's playing through a lot. I tried to come back and see if I get out there and get going that it will feel better, but I couldn't, and I didn't want to make it any worse. And I had confidence that my team could get this victory, and they did.

DWYANE WADE: Yes.

DWYANE WADE: No. I took the charge because I couldn't move. Actually I was glad he was coming at me. (Laughter). I wanted to stop play anyway, so I think it was a good way to go out.

DWYANE WADE: No, I'm not wondering. I feel that our staff will do everything in their power to get me prepared for the game. If I feel that I can go out and help my team, I will play. If I feel that I'm going to go out there and hurt my team, then I won't. I've got all of the confidence in the world, with me being young, hopefully I can bounce back real quick.

DWYANE WADE: Oh, it sucks, yeah, no question. I haven't really been hurt all season too much, and to get this injury on something that was just, you know, a quick move, something that I do probably a hundred times a game, it sucks. But like I said, all I can do now is just try to get better for the next game so I can be out there with my teammates. Main thing is I'm proud of them guys for really gutting this win out and I'm home and moving on to Game 6.

DWYANE WADE: Yeah, it happened before. I sat out four games early in the season something similar to this. It's just any movement to my left or to my right is going to hurt. I guess my wife is going to sleep on another bed tonight, because if she hits me then there's going to be problems. It's painful, I'll take the medicine that the doctors gave me and hopefully it goes away a little bit.

DWYANE WADE: Right side.

DWYANE WADE: I never had knives come into my side. (Laughter). Hopefully it never happens. It was a sharp pain, that's the only pain I felt.

DWYANE WADE: Well, as you see when I came back, I couldn't continue because movement is very key and I couldn't move either direction really, only go straight. So hopefully I can get better and hopefully I can get better, I'll come back and be able to keep embarking on this great season that we're having.

DWYANE WADE: It was on the left side. So this is the first time on my right side. It just feels like a pulled muscle. Just feels like with me making a quick move, it's kind of like a whiplash through my body. Like I said, hopefully me being young, I can recupe real fast and get ready for Game 6.

DWYANE WADE: It's good. I think this is the first time as a team, with Shaq getting back healthy and guys coming out in the first time in a couple of games that we came out and everybody was a big, big part of it. You know, it was great. This is the right time to do it. We need to do it again in Game 6. We don't need to rely on one, two or three people. Everybody's got to come and do it. This team has been great with that. I'm happy for those guys that don't get a lot of credit. Other teammates normally get a lot of credit, to have them get the win convincingly the way they did says a lot.