|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
NBA FINALS: HEAT v MAVERICKSJune 17, 2006Dwyane WadeMIAMI, FLORIDA: Practice Day Q. Can you talk about some of the differences in the way Dallas is defending you compared to what Detroit did? DWYANE WADE: I don't know, Detroit series was a while ago. I don't know, you know, I mean coming off pick-and-rolls, they have been switching it up, Dallas has. I think the same way kind of Detroit did it, you know, give you a different look at times. I don't know. I don't really remember how Detroit was guarding me. I kind of put that out of my head, so I don't even remember. Q. Coach Riley said that the game has kind of slowed down for you. Does you getting injured have anything to do with that? DWYANE WADE: I'm just getting back in the flow of things. Like I said, I'm kind of a rhythm player and the first two games of this series I was kind of out of rhythm, trying to get myself back from the flu, so I was kind of out of rhythm and I was just going super-fast. So the two games up here, I've just been slowing it down some, playing within myself and that's the difference. Q. Did the knee injury force you -- DWYANE WADE: Maybe so. I mean, you know, a lot of people say I played better when I got an injury or something, so it helps me slow down, think about what I'm doing. It really helped me early in Game 4 concentrate on my jumpshot because I knew that's what I was going to have to do early on in the game before my knee got loose. Q. Can you talk about the importance of Game 5, especially considering this format where you've got to go back to Dallas and win either one game or two games in a place where you haven't won a game this year. DWYANE WADE: It's very important, first of all, to win on your home court, it's always key. And secondly, yes, you don't want to go back there. We don't want to go back there down 3-2 with two games on their home court. It's important for us to come out and continue to keep playing the way we play as a team and that's together with confidence and energy, and defense is very key. So it's very important for us to get this win, of course, because we want to win, and secondly, we're on our home court. They want to win at home and it would be nice if we could win three and then see what happens. Q. With Jerry Stackhouse being suspended for this next game, they are ticked off, they are hot. How do you think that that will translate for you guys what are you expecting from them? DWYANE WADE: I don't know, we're not really -- we don't care. You know, we've had a guy suspended in the playoffs in round two, so we don't care about that. They have other players who are good on their team, Marquis Daniels, other players who can come in and fulfill the role. We're prepared for the other guys on their team. We don't care if they are ticked off because their guy got suspended for hitting our guy. We don't care about that. Q. When Jason Williams joined the team, do you think his game has really progressed, or what have you noticed that he has altered in his game? Do you think he might have been trying to pass too much in the beginning? DWYANE WADE: Well, he's matured a lot. When he first came, he really was trying to pass the ball, trying to show that he can pass it and without all the fanciness that he showed early in Memphis. He was really trying to pass and I think he was overpassing at times. Once he settled in and understood what we wanted from him, especially his shooting capabilities, he had some great games for us and a couple injuries slowed him throughout the year. He's finding his form again and he's been playing well for us. Jason is a big key to this team offensively with his explosiveness with driving the ball, and also his ability to shoot the long three. So it's good for us. Q. Avery yesterday said that they tried to guard you one-on-one, trapping, double-teams and you've been able to get out of everything. You mentioned how you're able to see the defenses coming before they actually come. Is that a transition you made between Games 2 and 3, things that you saw on film that allowed you to see better what they were trying to do to you? DWYANE WADE: It's a combination of different things. Of course, as you play a team, you get familiar with certain players and get familiar with defensive schemes, so it's a combination of that. Also it's a combination of me seeing pretty much every defense thrown at me, because a lot of guys know I'm an attacker, I want to attack the rim and they try different things, and I'm able to adjust on the fly sometimes better than others. It's all an adjustment and I will be hopefully ready to adjust to what they throw at me in Game 5. I'm sure they will come at me more and I'm confident in my teammates, they come at me more, someone is going to be open and someone is going to make a play. Q. I know you know what you're playing for in terms of the Championship, but we're down to Game 5 now and this is very high stakes right now. How do you think the pressure -- what do you think the pressure is going to be like in the next couple of games, because, you know, somebody wins two or three games, they win the Championship. There's nothing else but those two of three games? DWYANE WADE: I don't know. Never been in this position before. Me personally, I never want to look at anything as pressure. Hopefully my team doesn't think it's pressure. We just look at this as a golden opportunity, man, to go out and continue to do things, continue to do something special. But, you know, just continue to play well, take one game at a time like we have been. There's three games left, just take the next game for what it is and worry about it after that. You can't start to think about, we've got to win two-out-of-three, because then you start getting too anxious, you start thinking too much. So let's take it one game at a time and go out there and play like we have been. Q. Pat has been here so many times and won this thing so many times, but it's been a while; do you still see the drive there? Do you see the drive within him to kind of want to get back to the top again? DWYANE WADE: No question. Coach Riley is one of the greatest coaches that's ever coached this game. He changed the coaching game when he came in with his personality, his slick style and everything he has. He's one of the greats. You know, that drive is still in him at 61 years old, to be still -- to be still great, to show he can still do it at an older age. He did it when he was younger and he wants to do it when he's a little older. We see it every day when we come in the locker room, because he's prepared, he knows everything that goes on, he watches film just as much as the assistant coaches. He's doing a great job in getting us prepared. When you see a leader not getting any sleep and doing everything he can to give you the best game plan to go out there and win, it just pushes you. Q. From time to time Pat kind of suggests that at a certain point you may want to think about saving yourself instead of throwing yourself at the basket all the time -- DWYANE WADE: When did he say that? Q. From time to time. He says that's going to be the question, whether you can or what happens after that. DWYANE WADE: So what's the question? Q. So the question; does that ever occur to you, and will that be somewhere down the line? DWYANE WADE: No, it doesn't occur to me. Like I said when I first came here when they drafted me, they knew what kind of player I was. So I'm going to continue to attack the basket. When they drafted me, they kind of knew what I was going to do and no sense in me changing now or ever. But as I get older, of course, I will get smarter and I know that my body won't be able to take certain things but I'm not worried about that right now.
End of FastScripts... |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|