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NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: HEAT v BULLSMay 16, 2011Joakim NoahCHICAGO, ILLINOIS: Practice Day Q. What kind of adjustments do you think they might make going into Game 2? JOAKIM NOAH: I don't know. We're just focused on what we need to do. And we are sure we can improve in certain areas. Q. Talk about keeping that defensive intensity going on another night. JOAKIM NOAH: We know they'll be more aggressive, and we feel like we can be more aggressive as well. Q. They went with a smaller lineup. Do you expect them to do that again, or change it up? JOAKIM NOAH: I have no idea. Q. Do you think that's been one reason why you guys have been so successful this season, because you focus on your own team and what you guys need to do, as opposed to worrying about what your opponent might be doing? JOAKIM NOAH: Well, a wise man once told me control what you can control. I think those are words of wisdom. Q. Was that wise man named Tom Thibedeau? JOAKIM NOAH: No, it wasn't Thibedeau. Q. In that last series -- Q. Zackery Noah? JOAKIM NOAH: A wise man. Q. In that last series the visitors won. Is home court going to be more of a guarded thing in this series? JOAKIM NOAH: I don't know. We're just trying to take it one game at a time. We know that when we playing in the UC, we're tough to beat. But who knows what happens in a series, you know? Just focus on what you can control. We had a good day of practice today. I'm going to sit in the pool tank, get a massage. It's nice outside. Maybe sit outside and get ready for a good practice tomorrow. Q. When Gar was building the team, they said they believed that defensive rebounding will build a championship. How long did it take for you guys to buy into that same formula? JOAKIM NOAH: We have some very good rebounders. I think that our guards do a good job rebounding as well. We understand that winning the rebounding battle is important for winning basketball games. Q. You guys were all talking about you have to do things better, the things you need to clean up. Is this simply a negative after the game works well? JOAKIM NOAH: I don't think it's negative. Just being on edge, respecting our opponent. It's not one win that makes us satisfied. We're trying to do something bigger than just win one game. Q. Have you had a chance to look at Taj Gibson' dunks? Do they look better on video? JOAKIM NOAH: They are very nice dunks. They were very nice. Q. What do you guys have to do different against Bosh? JOAKIM NOAH: We have to do a better job on him. Me in particular. He got a lot of easy baskets around the rim, tip-ins when I was helping off of him. Chris is a hell of a player. We just got to try to slow him down a little bit. Q. How much of a factor was Derrick's penetration as far as you guys being in position to get offensive rebounds? JOAKIM NOAH: That has a lot to do with it. Derrick gets to the rim a lot. The bigs have to help, to put smaller guys on us, trying to box us out. They are doing similar situations too with D-Wade penetrating. Chris got a lot of his offense that way as well. Q. What makes your defense so successful as a team? JOAKIM NOAH: Repetition. Practice hasn't changed one bit since the first day of practice. It's the same practice every day. Overall, it's really the same thing. A lot of repetition. Q. You mentioned yourself yesterday after the game, haven't given you guys a chance to win the series -- relishing a performance like yesterday -- changed a lot of people's minds about that. JOAKIM NOAH: We're not worried about what people think. The only thing that matters is what we think of each other in our locker room. The mindset is the same. It doesn't matter if you're the underdog or the guy on top. At the end of the day you have to go out there and compete. Q. What was it like in the locker room at halftime? Derrick told you guys that those turnovers were on him. He mentioned a few things? Derrick, he said he talked about wanting to cut his turnovers down at halftime. What was that? What was going on there? JOAKIM NOAH: Just Derrick is always like that. He's really hard on himself all the time. That's what makes him a hell of a player. He wants to help the team. It's all about the team. And we know that if we can keep our turnovers down, we'll have a better chance of winning the game. They are so good off of turnovers, scoring off turnovers. Q. It has to kind of want to make other guys play hard when you hear him talk that humble. When you and Taj were switched on to LeBron yesterday, what kind of luxury do you think that is for a team to be able to have bigs that can play that kind of defense? JOAKIM NOAH: I think it's good. I think Omer did a great job as well. Q. Right. JOAKIM NOAH: Taj did great. Omer did great. We just have to do a better job of staying on our feet and not jumping -- one thing they're very good at, getting to the line on pump fakes, on switches. They got to the line a lot all night. So if we can stop that, it's going to help us even more. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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