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NBA FINALS: SPURS v HEATJune 13, 2013Dwyane WadeSAN ANTONIO, TEXAS: Game Four Miami Heat - 109 Q.  Dwyane, what was your reaction when the game started and you were being guarded by Splitter? DWYANE WADE: Before I answer that first, I want to show our concerns as an organization and our gratitude to our fans back in Miami for their support. We share our concerns for all that was injured at Shuckers Restaurant. When the game started and he was guarding me, I was glad I had the ball in my hand, because I was going to go right at him. I got a foul on him early. And Pop changed it after that. Q. Dwyane, I think it was Game 4 in Indiana last year where you said, "Sometimes a shooter just needs to see the ball go through the hoop once." It was that one play with LeBron you said kind of changed everything. Do you feel like the whole postseason changed tonight seeing the ball go through the hoop early on? DWYANE WADE: It's always good when the ball go through the hoop. It always feels good. I thought it started yesterday when we got done doing media. Myself and LeBron got a great workout in on the court. Once practice started, we was shooting the shots that we knew we was going to get. And we seen them go in, and our teammates and coaches were giving us confidence. So I thought it started yesterday preparing for this game. And tonight it just carried over. Q. People have talked all postseason about your supposed decline and so on and so forth. On any level did you need a game like this to sort of remind yourself what you're capable of, too? DWYANE WADE: Yeah, I needed a game like this, but my teammates needed a game like this from me. Needed me to be aggressive. Needed me to play the way that I'm capable of. Most important, they needed the Big Three to play the way we're capable of. They depend on us a lot. We love our teammates, and we can't win without them. We're not going to win this series if myself, Chris and LeBron don't show up to play on a consistent basis. So tonight was kind of one of the best performances that we all had in the playoffs together at the same time. Just being aggressive from start to finish, and hopefully that's what we can see for the next three games. Q. Dwyane, what was the biggest difference tonight, opportunities that you saw on the floor? DWYANE WADE: Well, offensively the same opportunities that's been there. No second‑guessing. Just playing. Whatever they gave us, we just took it. And we took it with confidence. Wasn't thinking about, I need to pass, I need to get off the ball. It was just, I'm open, I'm shooting it. Just being aggressive. I think the biggest change for us is on the defensive end. We just came out with more pressure. We were more active. We were able to get some steals, able to get out in transition, et cetera. That was probably the biggest thing in the game that we needed to change. Q. Dwyane, after losing Game 1, you guys were pretty distraught about losing home‑court advantage, knowing you had to come here and get one. Now that you know it's going back to Miami before it's settled, does that change the complexion of the series at all? DWYANE WADE: We had to come here and get it back. But our focus is trying to bring the same disposition on Sunday. We're a team that feels that every ballgame that we line up in that we can win, if we play the way that we're capable of. Right now we're 50% in this series of playing the way we're capable. But we want to continue it. So we have two days, we have time to rest and make adjustments. We have to come back with the same disposition on Sunday. Q. We've heard two of your teammates tonight, LeBron and Shane, both say that was 2006 Flash right there in the house. Do you feel like 2006? DWYANE WADE: No, I don't feel like 2006. But it felt good. When you see the ball go through the basket, then you get more confident. I knew I was on when I took it over the guy's head and dunked it on the break. That was a little vintage right there. So it felt good to have a performance like this in this game when we really needed it. If we go down 3‑1 tonight, it's tough to climb back out that hole. So to respond, that's kind of what you're going to be judged by as a man. You are judged by how you respond. I thought my team responded well, and I thought I responded well. Q. I'm not sure if you were standing in the corner when LeBron said, no matter how good you are, no matter your résumé, you have a game like tonight it reminds you you're a bad... Left out the last two words. DWYANE WADE: I didn't hear him say that. I appreciate that. Like I said, my teammates needed this game from me. They needed me to be aggressive. And that's what I did tonight. It was all about getting a win. And it was all about myself, Chris and LeBron coming out and leading this team on to a victory, which we was able to do tonight. Q. My question is a little bit on the line of hers. I know you've moved away from the Flash nickname. Can we call you Flash again just for this one night? DWYANE WADE: Yeah, Mike Miller kept calling me Flash all night. But it is what it is. You can call me anything right now. If I keep playing like that, you can call me whatever you want to call me. I'm already getting called a lot of stuff, so whatever. Q. Dwyane, you guys had a big game obviously from Chris. He's talked about overthinking and not thinking. Is he the guy kind of guy, could he stress himself out? Does that have an effect on his game from night to night? DWYANE WADE: Well, I think he said it best, overthinking. As a player we start overthinking too much, you know, you get in your own way. We've all have done it. It's times myself and Chris do it a little too much. I thought tonight after the game got going, I thought he got into the battle, he got into the fight. He played big for us. 13 rebounds, that's what we need from him and obviously 20 points. He played the way that we love to see Chris Bosh play. So just being aggressive. Some nights you don't know if the ball will go in. It might not be your night. The touches you get. But the thing we talked about is we all have to make an impact in this game somehow and some way. Q. Do you or anyone else have to try to keep him looser than any other players? DWYANE WADE: Loose? Q. Yeah, just to keep his mind off it. DWYANE WADE: Chris is not a loose guy. He's quiet and to himself. The biggest thing was just trying to let him know how important he is, how important he was going to be to us winning this game tonight. He responded in a good way, but we got to continue to respond if we want to do what we did last year, and that's win a championship. It's going to be hard, the hardest thing we're going to do as a group is try to repeat. And this team over here is not going to quit, no matter what. So we have to prepare for their best effort. I think Game 5 should be the best game of the series. Both teams should come out knowing each other, knowing what each other want to do, and it should be a very good game. Q. Dwyane, can you talk about how much easier the game is to manage when you guys dominate the paint scoring‑wise the way you did tonight, you and LeBron? DWYANE WADE: Well, that's our game is getting into the paint. That's one thing that a lot of teams try to stop us from doing. Obviously with their schemes of going under on pick‑and‑rolls, switching, they try to stop us from getting in the paint. So we was able to do a little bit of both tonight. We was able to get in the paint, we were able to make outside shots as well. That's the game we want to get to. We would love to consistently get to that, but we're playing a good team. We have to figure it out. We have to find ways to make sure we continue to test the paint, whether we're playing inside‑out, that's our way of penetrating and kicking it out to our shooters or finish ourselves. Q. Dwyane, what were the wraps you were putting on and off your knee during the game? And how did that affect your performance tonight? DWYANE WADE: That was just hot packs. Try to keep myself warm. I felt the last couple of times when I went to the bench I stiffened up a little bit. I tried to keep myself loose and try to work with Coach on not sitting me so long. You know, coming out when I get tired and getting back in there a little quicker and trying to keep my body going and moving. Q. How often have you done the hot pack treatment during games during the playoffs? DWYANE WADE: I haven't done it.  This is the first time I did it. I had to do it obviously on my knee to try to keep my knee loose. Then I took a knee from Tim Duncan in my hip, so I had to put on there to keep it loose so it wouldn't stiffen up on me. This is the first time I did it. Q. Dwyane, you guys have gone five months now without losing after a loss. But you've gone almost a month now without following up a win with another win. Is that something you have to do to sort of finally break this cycle, instead of making it so continually tough on yourselves? DWYANE WADE: That's what we would love to do. We would love to put‑‑ especially right now. There's three games left. It's the best out of three. Who wins two out of three. We would love to put a great string together, consistent games together. I'm sure they would love to do the same thing. So we will see. We have to come in with the same focus that we had after losing the ballgame. I know it's not easy to do that, but it's three games left. And we have to come out with that intensity and that focus that we had to start the game, and to end the game all the way through. That's the only way we're going to win it. Q. Dwyane, people were talking about the '06 Flash. No one would have dreamed of ever putting Tiago Splitter on the '06 Flash. When you saw that happen, did you feel that was borderline disrespectful? Did that set a tone for you tonight? DWYANE WADE: No. He's guarded me, actually, at least once every game at some point. But I said, "Give me the ball." When I seen the matchup. I didn't want to settle. I just wanted to be aggressive. It didn't happen long. Like I said, he's done it once a game. My thing is just to be aggressive whenever, whatever matchup they put on me. They play in different styles. They play in smaller lineups at times. I'm the one who is not the three‑point shooter of the group. So I'm the one they put someone on to meet me in the paint somewhere. So I understand it. Q. Can you sustain this effort and this kind of performance beyond tonight? DWYANE WADE: I guess there's only one way to find out: See you Sunday. I'll see you before Sunday. But you know what I mean. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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