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NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: PACERS v HEATMay 27, 2013Dwyane WadeINDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA: Practice Day Q. When you have a game like yesterday where LeBron is working at the post and you sort of can work on the wing, does that show how far you two have come in finding sort of a way to work together, where maybe the first year it wasn't there? Just part of the continued evolution? DWYANE WADE: Yeah, we've come a long, long way. The first year obviously we both was alphas, and we both played similar kind of games. LeBron was out on the perimeter a lot more. And I think he took upon himself last year, especially in the playoffs, to really get in the post. And they gave us a different dynamic. Over the last three years I've been in the post more than I normally was as well. This time of the year it's just about doing whatever it takes. I think last night we came in with the mentality to make sure that we get the ball down low and kind of play as much as we can inside‑out. Q. Did you guys give each other a high sign? Is it I got the post, you got the post? Is it part of the game plan ahead of time? Or is it simply a lot of times whoever runs to the block first? DWYANE WADE: Sometimes it's part of the game plan. Coaches‑‑ the post is always an option for us. Any time we come up the court, we can always get to the post, no matter what's going on in the offense. Somehow we come in‑‑ last night we came in with a game plan. Sometimes we come in and we just read how the game is going, the flow of the game, match‑ups, et cetera and just try to mix it up. Q. LeBron says when he's in the post, it's pick your poison, because if they do double him quickly, he's going to find the open guy. DWYANE WADE: Yeah, he's one of the great passers in this game. So obviously they're going to make some adjustments. We've got to be prepared for the adjustments they make, and our outside shooters have to be ready to shoot the ball. Guys like myself and Norris have to be ready to shoot any time as well. Yeah, you're going to give something up. But we just got to make them pay for it if they double him in the post. Q. (Indiscernible) been so good on the road here in these last five road games in the playoffs. You just seem to feed off playing on the road? DWYANE WADE: I don't know, man. We are coming in, obviously, off the road. I mean, obviously, on the road. It's a tough environment. You really got to be locked in. At home you can make mistakes, you can get away with it. When you're playing at home, you know your home crowd, their energy. On the road you can't make as many mistakes. We've been able to come out and bring that championship pedigree with us and give ourselves a chance on the road. That's all you can do on the road is give yourselves a chance. And we play pretty well. Q. What do you enjoy more, having 20,000 cheering for you or quieting the crowd away from home? DWYANE WADE: I enjoy them both. I'm 31 now, but I was a young kid. I had dreams of playing in the NBA. So I enjoy playing in front of 20,000 every night, period. Q. In your 31 years of experience, do playoff games carry over one to the next? DWYANE WADE: Yeah and no. It has in the past. And sometimes it doesn't. In the playoffs you like to say you have to move on from that game, whether you win by 1 or whether you win by 30. Whatever the case may be, the next game is going to be different, because every one is about making adjustments and which team can make the most. Sometimes you get into a flow, you get into a rhythm and it's hard to get you out of it. Q. That said, do you feel maybe this team has turned that corner in this series, that you feel you're back to Heat basketball after that effort last night? DWYANE WADE: I felt like we played Heat basketball last night. We'll see in Game 4. Q. With the policy the league put in this year to curtail flopping, what's your feeling on whether or not that has worked? DWYANE WADE: I don't know. I don't want to get into all that. I don't want to get into it. Q. You see it in the games, though? It still happens? DWYANE WADE: It happens. It happens. We would have no NBA possibly if they got rid of all the flopping. Q. For teams that haven't gone this far, Indiana has taken another step this year. Is it hard‑‑ do you remember back to when you first went this deep in the playoffs? Is it hard to sort of adjust to the increased levels you have to find? DWYANE WADE: Well, it is hard. The one thing is not everyone wants to do it, but you've got to earn your stripes. Sometimes you've got to go through what LeBron went through in his career. He got here and it didn't work. He got there and it didn't work. He got to The Finals and he lost. And he had to build his way back up. It's not easy in this league to win, no matter how good of a team you are. When you reach this level, you're playing against another team that's just as good as you are. So, you know, this is a very‑‑ it's very tough to be a champion. It's very tough to win championships. I think once you win you really respect that. When you haven't won, I don't know how hard‑‑ do you know how hard it really is to get to that point. This is as tough as it's going to get. Q. Looking back, are you surprised how quickly it happened for you? DWYANE WADE: Very. But I was put in a great position early in my career. I actually thought I was going to win in my second year in the NBA. You couldn't tell me otherwise. But we didn't. We lost the Eastern Conference Finals Game 7 at home. The third year obviously we made a lot of changes in Miami and was able to put together a championship team, when I thought the year before we had a better team. So you just don't know when it's going to happen for you or‑‑ you just got to work as hard as you can. And when you get the opportunity, you have to try to seize it. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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