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NBA FINALS: SPURS v HEATJune 13, 2013LeBron JamesSAN ANTONIO, TEXAS: Game Four Miami Heat - 109 Q.  LeBron, could you just elaborate on how tough the Miami Heat are to beat when the Big Three is clicking the way you guys were tonight? LeBRON JAMES: I mean, it was on our shoulders, obviously. We had to figure out to will a game for us, to play at the highest level. When all three of us are clicking at the same time, we're a very tough team to beat. Q. LeBron, you never get the feel of what Dwyane Wade is going to do some nights, it feels like from outside perspective. Do you know something about him? And how he could show up on a night like this, when other nights he just looks like a woozy fighter walking down the court. LeBRON JAMES: Well, he's a competitor, and every time he's down, he responds. For him to go out there and play the way he played tonight, it was amazing. 32, 6 boards, 4 assists, 6 steals. The 6 steals let me know he's very active both offensively and defensively. He went back in his bag today. He was Flash tonight. We needed every bit of it. Q. Is he hurting, do you think, physically? LeBRON JAMES: Yeah, he's hurting. Of course he's hurting. He's been playing with a bum knee all year. He's hurting, but he's not making no excuses about it. A performance like tonight will make you feel better. Q. LeBron, you talked about how you wanted to get out and run, get rebounds, get out in the open floor. You were able to do that pretty much from the beginning. Did you execute your game plan tonight the way that you wanted to? LeBRON JAMES: We had a game plan, and we played well. We played well offensively and defensively, and we needed it. We needed everybody, contributions tonight from the starters to the bench. We stuck with the game plan, even as they were making their run in the second quarter and some of the runs they made in the third. Q. LeBron, when Spo had to pull you out so you could catch your breath, you looked like you were extremely gassed. How big of a break did you need right there? LeBRON JAMES: Well, I needed a break a few minutes, for sure. I gave it everything I had. I was just playing as hard as I could until the tank was empty. And that's how it's going to have to be for the rest of this series. I was just trying to keep my foot on the gas, me personally, and just play till, like I said, until the tank was empty. That's why we have guys that can come in, when guys get tired, just keep the momentum going. Q. LeBron, you've talked a few times this series about shooters need to see the ball go through the basket. You saw it go through the basket the first time midway through the first quarter and then kind of took off. How big was that when Norris Cole hit you with that pass and the bucket and you took off? LeBRON JAMES: I just came into the game confident. Before I even made a shot I came into the game confident. I knew what my mindset was going to be. I didn't worry about last game. Last game was history. And I just worried in the present. I'm blessed and happy I was able to make a contribution to our win tonight. Q. LeBron, you guys talk a lot about must‑wins and coming back when your back is against the wall. Is the next challenge now to try to handle prosperity and put two of these wins together? You guys haven't had two consecutive playoff wins in about three weeks. LeBRON JAMES: That's exactly right. You said it perfectly. We can't wait until our back is against the wall every time to respond. We have to build some momentum. And we can use tonight as momentum, but we still have work to do. We still got to get better. There was some stretches tonight where we didn't play well. And if we understand and if we own it, we come in with a mindset on Sunday that we are desperate once again, and our back is against the wall. So it's going to be a challenge for us, and we have to be ready for that. Q. LeBron, it sounds like what you were saying earlier is you've learned how not to let games snowball on you, bad games snowball on you. Is that something you've just learned over the course of your career? And if so, how did you learn that? LeBRON JAMES: I'm blessed to have, I guess, a next day. I never went to college, so I never had to worry about if you lose the first one, then it's like I don't have another opportunity. And it's not saying I'm taking the game for granted, I just know there's a tomorrow. And I can't worry about what happened yesterday. And that's what I've been able to do. As bad as I played in Game 3, I put all the pressure on me to say I can't afford to play like that and hope for us to win. Not at this level. So I was able to forget about it. It hurt. I watched the film. It hurt watching it. I didn't like the way I was playing. But I just came in with a whole new clean slate tonight, and like I said, I was blessed to be able to make a few plays to help us win. Q. LeBron, you know what it is, how it changes your dynamics when one of your Big Three maybe isn't there on a given night. What have you guys done in terms of the priority on Ginobili to cause him to struggle the way he has in this series? LeBRON JAMES: He's a big‑time player. Against big‑time players you just try to make it tough on them. That's what we've been trying to do. We've been trying to get high hands on his pick‑and‑rolls. He's a great passer. When he raises for his threes, we try to get contests. When he drives the lane, we try to get a body in front of him and contest him at the rim. Sometimes you're lucky, and sometimes you're in the right position. So it's been a little bit of both. Q. LeBron, you said the six steals from Dwyane showed you how active he was. What's the 25 shots show you as well about the activity? And secondly, as silly as this sounds, did he almost need to be reminded himself of what he's capable of after all ‑‑ LeBRON JAMES: The 25 shots let me know that he was aggressive, every shot that he took. He wasn't passive. He came off, they went under, he shot his jumper. In transition he attacked the rim. He continued to attack throughout the game. And no matter how great you are, no matter what your résumé is, to have a game like this, it let's you know that you're still one bad‑‑ you know the next two words. I can't say, my kids may be watching. That dude was amazing. Like I said, he was '06 Flash tonight. And we needed every bit of him. Thanks, guys. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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