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NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: CELTICS v HEATJune 6, 2012LeBron JamesBOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS: Practice Day Q. Are you satisfied with your effort on the loose balls? LeBRON JAMES: Some of them we wish we could have come up with. Some of them we haven't been able to come up with. The ball bounces in crazy ways at times. Sometimes you get them, sometimes you can't. We feel like we gave ourselves a chance. Q. LeBron, you're going back to Boston. Two of the previous four years you've been eliminated there. How do you kind of use the disappointment you've had in the elimination games in Boston to your advantage? How do you use that as motivation? LeBRON JAMES: I mean, you don't need much motivation right now. It is what it is. You win and you bring it back here, or you go home. It's that simple. I don't need no extra motivation at this point. I've been motivated since the playoffs started. Q. Do you kind of wonder at times‑‑ you look at your numbers‑‑ I know people criticize everything. You look at your numbers, you look at Dwyane's numbers, do you wonder how much more is capable at this point? LeBRON JAMES: I mean, for me, I just got to keep playing my game. If I can get a couple more points here, a couple more rebounds there, a couple more assists, maybe we win more games. I don't know, man. I put a lot of pressure on myself to try to come through for our team. Last night I felt like I could have made a couple more plays, and I didn't. But at the end of the day, if you play hard, you go out there and lay it on the line, the numbers will take care of itself. And you can be happy with it. Q. When you're facing elimination down 3 whatever in the series, you've always talked about putting the pressure on yourself. How do you not kind of overwhelm yourself with how much pressure‑‑ LeBRON JAMES: I'm not. I won't. I'm going to go into the game just knowing that I got to try to make plays to help our team win and not put too much pressure on myself. I understand what I do for our team. They are going‑‑ I'll be satisfied because they know how hard I play. I'll be fine. Q. LeBron, compared to some of the other elimination games in your career, how do you feel? The same? Or more confident this time? LeBRON JAMES: I feel confident. I feel confident we can go up and get one. Then we're focusing on Game 6. That's what it's all about. Q. How do you assess the overall attitude and confidence of the team today in practice compared to last night after the game? LeBRON JAMES: It's definitely different. Last night we was down. We didn't want to lose that game. We played hard. Gave ourselves a chance to win. But you have to have a new mindset when you come in here today. You have to focus on Game 6. I know we have to go in with a mindset that we're going to win and bring it home for Game 7. We feel confident now. Q. Hearing you stand here, you're feeling calm, saying it is what it is, people who know you would say that the stakes are very important to you, that this matters a lot to you. LeBRON JAMES: It does. Q. How would you describe how big a deal this is to you and what the stakes are? LeBRON JAMES: It means a lot to me. How much work I've put into this year. No one said it was going to be easy. I'm looking forward to the challenge, me personally. I'm looking forward to it more than probably anyone on the team. So I'm going to lead these guys in the right direction, and hopefully it results in us winning. Q. How much do you put on yourself to pull this out tomorrow night to extend the series? LeBRON JAMES: I put a lot on myself, like I do any game. I do a lot for the team. I hold myself to a high standard. So I want to play well. I want to play well for sure. I'm not going to put too much pressure saying these are the numbers I'm going to get. I'm going to go out and play my game. At the end of the day we'll see what happens. Q. Is it fitting that‑‑ I mean you're here for a lot of reasons. Because of Boston. Because of what Dwyane went through, Bosh went through, what you went through. Is it fitting that an elimination game comes up there? LeBRON JAMES: No, it is fitting. I know how much pain this team has given me over the years. I think I guess it's only right that we will be going up there in an elimination game. In order for us to keep our season going, we have to win in their building. (Indiscernible). Q. How do you let that not get in your head? LeBRON JAMES: What do you mean? Q. With the history and‑‑ LeBRON JAMES: Let it not get in my head? It's a new day. It's a new game. But it's obviously a great team, and if we go in with a game plan and we go in and play hard, all we can ask for is to give ourselves a chance to win late in the game. We can be satisfied with that. Q. Three losses in a row to the same team. When you look at those, what do you see is the biggest problem that you guys haven't been able to fix yet or that you need to fix? LeBRON JAMES: Game 3 it wasn't close. They pretty much got whatever they wanted. Game 4 we gave ourselves a chance to win. We didn't make enough plays. It was a great game. And last night we also had‑‑ I mean there were some tough bounces. I know a few plays went right off the top of my head. D‑Wade got the block off Bass. It was a 50‑50 ball in the air. Rondo punched it to Pietrus for a three. That was a big play. And then another play was Ray Allen went down the lane, kind of kicked it off his foot, picked it up and hit Pietrus again for another three. Sometimes the ball bounces in different ways. Momentum plays happen. But like I said, last night we gave ourselves a chance to win. That's all you got to do. Q. You were one of the first to publicly compliment Coach Spoelstra after the Indiana series. Today the word "out‑coached" is being thrown a lot around by the pundits. Do you want to take an opportunity to publicly defend him now? LeBRON JAMES: I mean, he's our coach. I don't need to defend him. I'm here. We got a lot of respect for Spo. We have all the confidence he's going to give us a game plan to help us win. Me personally, I don't even hear what goes on out there. I only hear it until you guys tell me about it. So it's always new to me. I know he's heard it before. That's not new to him either. Q. When you go back to Boston, do the memories of some of the tough losses linger there? Are you able to completely put them out of your mind? LeBRON JAMES: I mean, they definitely come up. Of course. It's human for them to come up. You got to approach tomorrow's game like it's its own. And we look forward to the challenge. I know I do. Q. Knowing how physical this thing is going to be tomorrow, how much better equipped are you guys, even if Chris isn't fully right, the fact he's going to be out there? LeBRON JAMES: We can use his‑‑ we're going to have to have him out there on the court. I think he played great in his minutes he had last night. 14 minutes, 9‑7, that's really good production. The fact that we're a whole finally for a game that means a lot to us all, it should help us. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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