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NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: HEAT v BULLS

May 20, 2011

Derrick Rose

MIAMI, FLORIDA: Practice Day

Q. Derrick, you guys have faced a lot of challenges in the post-season already. Along comes another one come Sunday night. Can you just talk about that game?
DERRICK ROSE: Just how we respond to it, that's the biggest thing. We just have to come back and stay focused.

Q. You guys have rebounded so many times after losses this year. What's the key to being so resilient?
DERRICK ROSE: Coming in. Everybody has to be on the same page, where this is a big game coming up, because it's our next game. It's going to be definitely a hard game, especially going to their arena. And they're a great team when they are playing in there.
We have to stay together. It's us against everybody.

Q. When you look back and almost simplify Game 2, you just have to make more shots, all of you?
DERRICK ROSE: Yes, we missed shots we normally hit. Wide open threes, lay-ups, floaters, all that stuff. We were just missing them. If anything, I think that next game they should fall.

Q. Derrick, you've faced every defense there is. IT looked like in the second game they double-teamed you high.
DERRICK ROSE: Yes.

Q. How do you counteract that?
DERRICK ROSE: Passing out of it. I think it's one time I think Thibs was looking at it where I easily could have hit Joakim. I thought in my mind I had the shot at the end of the clock. I stepped back and missed the shot. Just looking at things like that and working to make the game easier.

Q. Did they make it tougher for you to get in the lane in Game 2? And how important is that for you to be able to get back down close this next time?
DERRICK ROSE: It comes with us just making shots. If we make shots, there's no way they can help off anybody. Especially when Luol got it going, Kyle got it going, Joakim got it going. It's tough. Just keep driving. I know it's going to be hard, because they got shot-blockers back there, Chris and Anthony. But I just have to find a way to get there.

Q. What is it about this team that after a loss something seems to click for you guys and you don't lose again after it happens?
DERRICK ROSE: Don't jinx us like that.

Q. Sorry.
DERRICK ROSE: If anything, we look at film, and we look at the reason that we lost. Our energy, our intensity wasn't there. Rebounding the ball, the smalls got to get back and rebound the ball. Thibs explained to us that we just didn't play with a good pace during the game, especially on the offensive end. And it shows on the film.
We felt bad about it, and now we're on to the next game.

Q. Kyle has been so important to you guys on offense all year. He's in a little bit of a slump for him right now. What do you tell him? Do you keep passing him the ball and tell him to keep shooting?
DERRICK ROSE: He got to keep shooting. That's God's gift, the way he shoots the ball. We have a lot of confidence in him every time he comes off the pick that he's going to make the right decision. We tell him, if anything, just shoot it up there, because most of the time it's going to go in.

Q. How was it having a day off?
DERRICK ROSE: It feels great. But it's nothing right now. We still feel a little fatigued. But you come in, you still get your work in. Now I feel great.

Q. Does guarding Wade at all tire you out?
DERRICK ROSE: No. There's no excuses anyway. If anything, I think they walked the ball up the court a little bit. So you get your breath right there. But I'm not tired at all.

Q. When you get a day off, like you did yesterday, is it a mental break or a physical break?
DERRICK ROSE: Physical.

Q. What did you do yesterday?
DERRICK ROSE: I stayed in the whole day. Just watched movies, playing a game, getting around to my friends. Stuff like that.

Q. Is it going to be tactics or is it going to be will?
DERRICK ROSE: Will. Definitely will. Every game is like that now, where the talent is equal, and it's all about will. Who wants it more.

Q. Were you guys angry at yourselves the day after, maybe some of the letdowns?
DERRICK ROSE: I wouldn't say "angry." Knowing it was a tie game, tie Game 73-73 with four minutes left, usually we would be the team that ends up winning that game. They made great plays. They've got great players on their team. Hopefully we learned from our mistakes.

Q. Are you guys expecting some MVP chants? Can that continue in Miami? You heard it in Atlanta and Indiana.
DERRICK ROSE: I really don't know right now. I could care less right now. I just want to win. Give me a win and I'm all right.

Q. Derrick, why do you think that lineup with Taj and Omer you guys have been using in the fourth quarter has been so good defensively?
DERRICK ROSE: I think their energy. Their energy, their awareness, the help side to come in and contest shots without fouling, rebound the ball. Just running. It's really up to me in the fourth quarter. We have to run more instead of walking the ball up, because their bigs -- where they can finish down there and easily get fouled. I just got to make the right decisions.

Q. You guys have been a good road team this year. Talk about the mentality of being able to play as well as you want to play in these games coming up down there.
DERRICK ROSE: This is going to be a crazy game, where I think they are going to have a lot of confidence. But some way, somehow we have to come up with this win, no matter how we get it. We just have to have more intensity than them, and we have to play way more aggressive.

Q. The fact that you've won down there, do you take anything from that?
DERRICK ROSE: No. That's regular season. It's nothing like right now, where every little thing that you do is big. Especially in the playoffs right now. Turnovers, blown sets, everything can cost you the game.

Q. Is it weird having so many days in between games like this and not being able to play until Sunday?
DERRICK ROSE: You get used to it. Especially when Oprah is here. (Indiscernible) Used to getting rest right now.

Q. You guys have been so good in the fourth quarter all year. How much of that success has been the shooter and how much of that has been away from the ball with the cuts and the screens and everything else?
DERRICK ROSE: I think it helped us out in practice. Really in the game that's what we're used to doing, because of practice, going through every set. When we're tired, when we're fatigued, just making sure that we run it to a T and towards the end of the game.
That's why I could be wide open. Because we're used to running it when we're tired. Last game it just wasn't there. We missed a lot of sets. Missed communication. Things like that messed us up. We looked at film. I think we got things right in practice.

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