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NBA FINALS: MAVERICKS v HEAT

June 4, 2011

Dwyane Wade

DALLAS, TEXAS: Practice Day

Q. Dwyane, Erik said that when he replayed the tape that he said you guys knew. You saw the stuff on tape, and you knew certain things you weren't supposed to be doing in those late-game situations. Was it something that stuck out to you on either end that as you look back at it, it was a consistent thing that was a problem for you guys in Game 2?
DWYANE WADE: Well, obviously, everybody is going to point to the offensive end, but going back and looking at the film, we only had three bad possessions, that we feel is bad possessions. That was the two threes by LeBron and the one by me. But the rest, we got good shots. We got open shots. We didn't make them.
Obviously for us it comes down to just our mental mistakes on the defensive end of the floor. We had a couple of possessions that was a couple of gambles. We had a couple of possessions we didn't do the things we normally do. You have to give Dallas credit. They made shots. They made plays.
So we understand what we did wrong. But we also give them credit. They did their job. It was a game full of runs. Dallas made the last run.

Q. Dwyane, it seems that Erik and LeBron and you are more disappointed about the defensive effort there at the end. What was your individual reaction in watching the final minutes? And as a group, what was the reaction watching that?
DWYANE WADE: Well, just first of all, we let one go. We let one slip away. We're a very confident team going into the fourth quarter when we have the lead, whether it's one point, and obviously 15. But just looking at the film, even watching on my own, just looking at the things you felt we could have done better as a team, the little mistakes we made that they made us pay for. Dallas is a very potent offensive team. And every mistake we made at the end, they made us pay for it. They made their shots. You have to give them credit. They, I think, scored 10 out of the last 11 possessions.
They made shots, and we didn't at the end of the day. Very disappointed, because we win games defensively. That's the way you win. The way you win championships. That game was lost because our defense wasn't as good as it normally is.

Q. In your career you've played in a lot of situations where the series has been 1-1 after two. Can you talk about the value of Game 3 in this series.
DWYANE WADE: Obviously, we understand this is a very big game. Every game we go into is going to be a very big game from this point on. Obviously, because Dallas did what they came to do. They got a split. Now we come and we have to do what we came to do and it's to win Game 3. It's going to be a tough game to win for both teams. We understand we're a team that can do it. If we played defense the way we did at the end of Game 2, we won't win. If we play Miami Heat style defense we'll give ourselves an opportunity to win. That's all you can ask for.
It's a very big game. It's going to be a hostile environment. Nothing the Miami Heat are not used to. We look forward to it.
We've been looking forward to it since after Game 2. We know we let one slip away. We look forward to the challenge of what Game 3 is going to bring.

Q. Dwyane, earlier Dirk and Jason Terry were in here. They were asked about and talked about the value of having played together a long time, the communication, the relationship they have. How much is that an asset that is harder to come by when you've been together as a team pretty much for a year as you guys have? Or how much more will that be an asset as you guys go forward?
DWYANE WADE: Obviously, it's a benefit to play together for a while. It's kind of like the back of your hand, you know exactly what's on it without looking at it. So you have that connection. But I feel that as much as a team can play together for one year can be as close as we are, I don't know if you can get any closer this year. We cannot worry about the future or next year. But right now we're as close as we're going to get. We understand, we trust each other, we understand each other. And we believe in each other.
You know what, losing that game with this team, I'm not worried, because I know this team don't turn its back on each other. We've been through a lot throughout this season that's made us come together, even closer, and have each other's back. We're going to continue to have that. Obviously playing together for a while is beneficial. I think we do all right with just one year of knowing each other and playing together.

Q. Dwyane, after Game 1 you said you've watched Chris grow up in these playoffs. He's taken a lot of heat after Dirk's swing basket. How do you think he'll respond coming to his hometown in Dallas?
DWYANE WADE: First of all, Chris is a great player. We have a team defensive system. He played him well. Dirk made an unbelievable move. Our defensive rotations wasn't there to help him out. It's never one guy on our team that wins or loses a ballgame. Chris understands it, like we understand, don't ever get too high, don't ever get too low. Chris was just talked about as the most important player of the Miami Heat. Now he's talked about it in a different way. We're not fazed by it at all. His only job and our only job was to come in and learn from our mistakes we made in the game and move on to Game 3.
The basketball aspect of it. Not really worry about what's said and what's not said. At this point you can't be fragile to that. We wouldn't be in this situation we're in if guys was.

Q. Dwyane, other than the championship game, this franchise has not played particularly well in this building. For that matter hasn't played well in this city for a long time.
DWYANE WADE: No.

Q. Why is that, and how does that seep into your consciousness going forward?
DWYANE WADE: Other than the playoffs, this franchise hasn't played well against Dallas, period. I haven't won a regular season game against Dallas in my career. I've been able to pull out five so far in my postseason. I don't know. I wish I knew. Go into every year saying we're going to get one win against Dallas this year. It never happens.
This is a different season. This building. Obviously, we did something great here. We won one game here. It was the biggest game in our franchise history up until this point.
More than anything, this is a different team. We're not the team we was last time we came into this building early in the season in November. We're a different road team. So we're confident, more confident now than we've ever been. I wish I had an answer to that question. I gave you whatever answer I thought.

Q. Dwyane, does the extra day between two and three get you over what happened the other night or does it make the wait seem that much more brutal to get back out there?
DWYANE WADE: It just makes it worse. As competitors, we could have went in the locker room, got some Gatorade and came out and played again for the mistakes that we made. (Laughter).
But you know what, it seemed like most of our losses where we have had four in the playoffs, we have had a day in between to think about what we've done. You guys have a day in between to talk about what was done and what was not done.
We've learned from it every time we have had a loss. No loss in the playoffs is a bad loss. A loss is a loss, a win is a win. Whether we lost by 1 or 15, it was going to feel the same way. We've learned from it. We're excited right now. After this we get to go on the practice court and really move on and get ready for the next game. We can't wait to play tomorrow. We're very excited about this game, this opportunity, as competitors. I think I'm sweating underneath this -- no, it's the lights. Sorry. (Laughter). Because I'm excited to get out on the basketball court.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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