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May 29, 2012
MIAMI, FLORIDA: Practice Day
Q. (Indiscernible) you've got to make them feel us a little more. You almost always hear that in the playoffs after the first game. Is that almost expected after a team that gets behind to try to adopt a more physical approach, sort of get into you a little more? Is that sort of what you expect?
DWYANE WADE: Yeah. That's what we became accustomed to. It's something that we're used to. One thing about us, we can play any way. It's the playoffs.
Q. It seems like you're getting used to making those long passes to LeBron, the touchdown passes.
DWYANE WADE: It's like a quarterback. If you have a good receiver, it makes you look better.
Q. Did you play quarterback any time?
DWYANE WADE: When I was in eighth grade, I was like backup quarterback.
Q. What is it about you guys that seems to make other teams feel like hey, we can just (Indiscernible)?
DWYANE WADE: I don't know. I don't know. That's not really my‑‑ I'm not trying to figure it out. The only thing I'm trying to figure out is how we're going to win the series, how we win this game. Whatever they feel like they can do to us, we have one goal, and that's to win ballgames. We'll continue to have that mentality.
Obviously you have to protect yourself. And we're men just like they're men. We're not going to let nobody just come in and punk us. That's not our mentality, go out there and make them hit the deck. We're trying to play basketball.
Q. Do you have a connection, you and LeBron, in transition. It seems like you guys kind of know each other on the court all the time. It seems like it's one pass either you to him or he to you.
DWYANE WADE: I'm just always looking up. Obviously when you look up, you get to see a guy streaking. You can trust if they catch the ball they can finish. Sometime it's a risky pass. Sometimes not so much. It's just always having your head up and always looking for someone else when get (Indiscernible) so when I grab the rebound, sometimes I look right up, and I see my guy a little bit ahead of the crowd, and I just throw it up to him.
Q. (Indiscernible)?
DWYANE WADE: We didn't feel like we played great. We feel like we had certain points we played pretty good.  Obviously the second quarter was not a highlight for us at all. So it's a lot of things we can do better defensively. Better rebounding the ball.
Offensively, we're starting to see where some of my shots are going to come. (Indiscernible).
Q. What's the correlation between your ball movement and Bosh not being (Indiscernible)?
DWYANE WADE: Probably just a little different, obviously. When Bosh went out, the fact that we got smaller, we became more‑‑ you know when you have to call sets, they call it to me or LeBron, instead of calling for all three of us. So I'm more involved in the offense.
I kind of know exactly what we're going to get right out of us too. I think the package got smaller and it became more of a cover for us to get back to‑‑ kind of what we're used to in a sense. Not saying we don't want Chris back now. We would love him right back right now, healthy. But we made the adjustments we need to make with him out.
Q. (Indiscernible)?
DWYANE WADE: Something we didn't do in the last series. We lost Game 2 at home. And it became a tough series to win after that. So we have to protect our home court. That's the only agenda, is to win the next game.
Q. I know you guys have played against Rondo before, but what are some of the things (Indiscernible)?
DWYANE WADE: Rondo is tough. Only thing you can do is try to stay in front of him as much as possible. He's going to make some shots. He's going to make some unbelievable passes. Hopefully throughout the series we'll make an adjustment. But you just try your best to give him different looks. He's a guy if you give him the same look, he's going to eat you alive. We try to give him different looks and get different guys guarding him, and hopefully it helps a bit.
Q.  Are you guys playing him the same way you always did?
DWYANE WADE: We mix it up. We have played Boston so many times. You can never play Rondo the same way.
Q. Ray‑‑
DWYANE WADE: Ray, no, we guarded Ray. Our team defense is to guard him. When he's running off the screens, we try to trail him. We try to have our bigs there to help. When it's time to help, you try to help. We have a system. We have to stay with our system. So it's never ideal. Ray Allen is always live for us. He's always the guy who we put a lot of emphasis on.
Q. (Indiscernible)?
DWYANE WADE: How many years? Two.
Q. When you were talking to Chris about taking a little less money to come here in order to help out with the defense, physical play and (Indiscernible) to what you were telling us he would be so valuable to have him out on the floor‑‑
DWYANE WADE: Well, I mean, it was (Indiscernible) they understood that. Obviously they got us three to sign. But it wasn't enough. And we needed other guys that we knew was going to be in the system that was going to be what we needed when it comes to a guy that's going to rebound the ball, that's going to be defensive‑minded.
We didn't need someone else exactly, another offensive juggernaut. We had what we thought at that time was enough to think about. But we wanted to make sure there were guys that wanted to be there, with guys that can help us have big games, but also do other things.
That's why it was a big plus to get Shane Battier, a guy who don't need the ball to be effective in so many ways. Obviously, we had a little bit to do with it, but owners had a lot more to do with it.
Q. (Indiscernible) how important is it to have someone on the court who is as tough as Battier?
DWYANE WADE: Very important. Especially this time of year when you're going deep into the playoffs. It becomes about what you have deep down inside that you can pull out. That's why the Boston Celtics are so good, because they have so much deep down inside them. That's what makes them so tough.
Q. Can you teach an old dog new tricks? What else can you expect from the Celtics?
DWYANE WADE: They're going to have some days and quarters like they had in the second quarter. One thing about them is they make you‑‑ they do a good job of making you start talking to yourself because the way if you make one mistake, they make you pay for it. This is one of those series from game to game you have to really be in tune for 48 minutes for real. This team is so good. They're not the success they've been (Indiscernible).
Q. How much of a luxury‑‑ with every game you win, there's no need to rush Chris Bosh back. How much of a luxury does that become with every game you win that there's no need to rush him back?
DWYANE WADE: It's good obviously for us to continue to keep playing. The more we keep playing, the more time we can allow him to get healthy and really take his time. When he decides to come back, it's because he's comfortable coming back and he doesn't feel the pain of the injury.
There's no need for him to come back‑‑ especially at this time of the year in the Eastern Conference Finals‑‑ to rush him back. We understand his injury. We know that it's not an easy injury to come back from. When we see him in the gym moving towards that way, it gives us a lot of encouragement.
Q. Speaking of injuries, have you had a chance to talk to Derrick Rose since he had his surgery?
DWYANE WADE: Since he had his surgery, no, unfortunately. I send my best wishes to D. Rose and his family. I'm focused on the playoffs. I'm sure when I'll be around Chicago a bit in the summer I'll have an opportunity to hopefully talk to him. Sent out my best wishes when it happened, and hopefully all is well with him and his family, and that he gets back on the basketball court.
Q. After all these years, how have you been able to keep your quarterback skills so sharp?
DWYANE WADE: No, I don't have quarterback skills at all. I've got basketball skills. I don't have no quarterback skills at all. I know how to take the ball from one end and throw it to the other. Football players, that's what they do. I don't want no part of it. I can't be a quarterback at all.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
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