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NBA FINALS: MAVERICKS v HEAT

May 31, 2011

Chris Bosh

MIAMI, FLORIDA: Game One

Dallas Mavericks 84
Miami Heat 92

Q. Chris, what was the mood like in that huddle after Stevenson hits his three and they're up eight and the building is back on its heels a little bit in the third?
CHRIS BOSH: The main thing that we were talking about was just to get a good shot at the basket and get another stop. That wasn't our style. That wasn't the way that we play defense. And we gave up too many wide-open looks. We've been in that situation before. Everybody is calm. We began to challenge each other and challenge the team. And we just talked about the points that we needed to talk about, and we moved on.

Q. Chris, I know you weren't here in 2006, maybe you caught it on TV. Dwyane has a way of warming up against this team. I know you've probably watched the tapes of 2006. When he got going there in the third quarter, and he hits the three, was that sort of a thought in your mind, that's what we were waiting for, we knew that would be there? It's the Mavericks, it's Dwyane, let's get it on?
CHRIS BOSH: He's such an explosive offensive player, he spoils you a little bit. You kind of look for that every game. When it comes, it's like okay, here it is. He can really get it going. He really heats up at times. He's a major part of this team's offense, and anytime that he's going, it's great. He's so unselfish to where if he doesn't have the shot or two people are playing him, he's going to make the correct pass.
So you really have to respect his play-making abilities and his ability to put the ball in the hole.

Q. Chris, when you score points like you do, and you've had some big games in these playoffs, you never know when they're going to count the most. It looked like in the first half your points really made a difference because Dwyane was trying to find his rhythm a little bit. LeBron hadn't gotten unwound at that point in the game either.
CHRIS BOSH: I know they're going to pay a lot of attention defensively to both of those guys, so I really used the beginning of games to kind of get myself involved and get some shots at the rim, maybe take it a few times and try to get to the free-throw line.
Anytime I get myself involved in the game, you know, I have more confidence. If I score, I score. But, you know, sometimes you have to know what the ball feels like when you shoot it, when you're taking it to the rack. It increases your confidence as the game goes on.

Q. Chris, I believe that was a playoff low for Dallas in points. Can you talk about the Heat defense. Was that a normal night for you guys? Exceptional night?
CHRIS BOSH: It's a normal night. I think we can do better. We made a lot of mistakes in the half-court sets. They're going to challenge you. They're a great team. We can't make those mistakes. I think we can play much better offensively and defensively, and hopefully the next game -- well, tomorrow, let's take it slow. Tomorrow we'll look at the film, we'll see where we made our mistakes, we'll make adjustments and move on from there.

Q. Chris, your rebounding was a big factor. 16 offensive to 6 offensive boards for them. A lot of times you had a lot of room to grab boards. Was their zone part of the reason they weren't as able to get as many offensive rebounds?
CHRIS BOSH: I mean sometimes. When you play zones it's tough to find guys to box out. That's one thing about zones is when you're playing it, you're not matched up with anybody. You're just playing an area. We know that we can crash the boards. Anytime that we can get second-chance opportunities, it's gold for us. Because I think you've seen the series that we've played.
So I think that's an area we can improve on as well. We can do better on the offensive boards, and really challenge them to block us out. And when we do get the ball, we can, you know, get another shot at the basket. That's going to be huge in the series.

Q. You've talked before about previous years looking across the floor and not seeing quite the play-makers to close games. Looking across the court here when you see Dwyane, when you see LeBron and seeing especially it's the fourth quarter the way they get revved up, what's that like? And what do you think they're so good at when they do that?
CHRIS BOSH: It's a very confident feeling. Just to know that we have each other's back, really the whole team. I look at our whole team, and I just -- we believe in each other so much. And we've worked so hard that you just know who is there in the foxhole with you, and you know, that's a confident feeling. And you can just go out there and do your job, because you know that your teammate is going to do his job and he's going to help you out on defense. If we're on Dirk Nowitzki and we have to rotate, I know it's hard leaving him at the three-point line, really anywhere on the court. If we leave, we're trusting our guys to be there.
That's just a great feeling to have that kind of trust and teammates who trust you at the same time.

Q. Chris, what worked against Dirk and what didn't?
CHRIS BOSH: I really don't know what worked against him. He's going to score. Flat out, he's going to score. You can't really stop him. We just have to slow him down and just give him different looks and make things tough on him. He got to the free-throw line quite a bit. I think we can clean that up. And he got some lay-ups. But other than that, we just have to contest all his shots. You know, don't give him any easy catches, because he's too good.
THE MODERATOR: Thanks, Chris.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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