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NBA FINALS: SPURS v HEATJune 19, 2013Dwyane WadeMIAMI, FLORIDA: Practice Day Q. Dwyane, first of all, what happened happened at halftime? Why were you late coming out? How did that knee feel throughout the game after you banged it with Manu? DWYANE WADE: That's exactly what happened. Early in the game I took a good shot right on my left knee, and that's the knee I had surgery on. That kind of trauma to it at that moment it just swelled up. At halftime I was trying to do as much as I can, treatment. I needed a certain amount of time. So I told them to make sure they start Ray in that quarter. It was stiff. I couldn't do as much as I wanted to. I just tried to do whatever I could. Q. This morning was it swollen and stiff? DWYANE WADE: Yes, both. Yes. Q. Dwyane, about a month and a half ago you said just get you through 16 more games and you'll figure out what's going on with your knee. Now it's the other knee as well. One more game left to go. Where are you? How much do you have left? And just talk about the winner‑take‑all situation. DWYANE WADE: There's one game left. Whatever you have inside of you, you muster it up, you give it. So I'll be fine. Q. Dwyane, whether it's you guys going on to win after being almost dead last night or whether it's them bouncing back tomorrow and winning after having the most gut‑wrenching loss you can have, what do you think history will say about the winner of this series? DWYANE WADE: I think I'm maybe a little biased, but personally I think it's been a helluva series, man. The reason this series hasn't had a lot of consistency in the sense of teams winning two games in a row is because there's two good teams. Two great coaches, coaching staffs, and credit to everyone in this series for that. So I think‑‑ I know that game will go down as one of the best Final games that's been seen. But I think this series will go down as being one of the most competitive, bizarre series that's been seen. So this is what you pay for to watch. You pay to watch two great teams battle to the very, very end, and that's what we'll do tomorrow. It will be to the very last second. Q. Dwyane, when Ray hit the three‑pointer to force overtime, what went through your mind? Relief? Anticipation? What was that moment like? DWYANE WADE: Well, I actually had the benefit of being underneath the rim when Ray shot it. And when he shot it, I was looking at the ball and I said, oh, my God, that's going in. It was kind of like I couldn't believe it in a sense. But also, oh, my God, it's going in. When it went in, it's new life. We have a saying on our team where, as you guys might have heard some of it, in our thing before the game we say "To the last minute, to the last second, to the last man we fight." And that's what we did. We fought to the very last second. And was able to come back and get probably the best win that we've had outside of winning the championship last year. But the best win we've had as this unit this season. Q. Dwyane, what will your routine be over the next 48 hours to get your mind and your body just right for this challenge? DWYANE WADE: Same thing. You don't change anything. Today it will be a total treatment day for my body. And mentally you just cut everybody on the outside off. Just focus on what you need to do. So it will be the same as I always do to get prepared for a game. And I'm confident that I'll get prepared enough to get my team what they need to help us ‑‑ give us a chance to win tomorrow. Q. When you say "cut everybody on the outside off," do you mean your kids, everybody? DWYANE WADE: My kids are on the inside. (Laughter). Q. Dwyane, in your Game 7 experience, is the mental challenge different, just keeping your composure and the poise and not wanting to have any stretch where you're not doing exactly what you want to do? DWYANE WADE: I don't know, man. I mean, when you get to elimination games, last night was elimination game, it was one point where in the third quarter where it seemed like everything was going wrong for us, and we were only down six, eight around that time, but it seemed like we were down 100. So every possession becomes so much. Every turnover, everything is magnified from that standpoint. Whenever you get in an elimination game, it's like that. But you just have to keep playing the game. You can't win it in 40 minutes. You can't win it in 45 minutes. You've got to do it in 48. So you have to just keep fighting. Q. Talk about what you saw from LeBron from a play and will standpoint in the second half. DWYANE WADE: Yeah, I seen the will of giving everything he had to the game. I think he was obviously frustrated and disappointed up until the fourth quarter with his performance. He expects the best out of himself. And he just put his head down, man, and just attacked. And when he does that, there's not many people on the planet that can do anything about it. He was able to go out there and breathe new life into us as a team. He kept the attack on. One of the best performances I've seen from him from the standpoint of playoffs, big moments, and I've seen a lot. But the moment really doesn't get any bigger than last night, scoring 18 points in the fourth quarter and overtime. That's huge, man. That was a very big moment for his career, defining moment. Q. In that regard, what about tomorrow? There's a lot of great players in this series. Most definitely the spotlight will be on him and what he does. DWYANE WADE: There's a lot of great players in this series. I mean, he's the greatest one. He understands the spotlight that will be put on him. I think he's going to enjoy the moment. Game 7 here on our home floor, you know, it's going to be tough for him not to give it his all. Hopefully the outcome is great. But I know he's going to give everything he has. That's good enough for us. As long as LeBron James comes out with that focus on both ends of the floor, just giving everything he has, and everything he has is special. So we'll be all right. Q. Dwyane, opinions have swung so wildly about your team since this group of three came together three years ago. DWYANE WADE: Yeah. Q. Do you personally feel in your heart that you guys need this championship tomorrow to somehow validate what you did when you decided to team up? DWYANE WADE: Well, I think we personally need the championship because we personally want it. It doesn't matter if we win it, next year it will be the same thing. You're not going to please everybody with what you do. But I think it's been a great achievement to be in three Finals in a row, because the hard part people don't get to see, what the hard part of this‑‑ everyone sees the names and say, oh, they should be, but it's a lot harder than that. So to be here three years in a row is a great achievement, and to be in this position now, to be able to win two championships out of the three is even greater. So we'll see when it's all said and done. But right now we're in the middle of it.  We're just enjoying each other. We're enjoying this opportunity we've all had to play with each other. And I think people need to enjoy it a little bit, too. Because one day it won't be here, and people are going to miss it. Let's stop getting rid of it while it's still here. Q. Dwyane, you talked about how great LeBron was when he just went into attack mode. Most people are saying why didn't he do that the first three quarters. Will you tell him, look, you need to come out like that in the first quarter, the whole game or how do you look at it? DWYANE WADE: I mean, he's in unbelievable shape. Unbelievable. But he can't do it four quarters that way. That's why he has a team. A lot of people always say, why he can't play like that every day? It takes so much out of you, so much energy to be able to do that. If he does, then he's not playing any defense on the other end. He's not making incredible blocks, incredible rebounds. It takes a lot of energy to be able to do that every time. You have to pick your spots when you do it. He picked the best time, the best moment to just say you know what‑‑ like I say, I've never seen him go without his headband in the game. I was confused. I was like, what is going on? He was just in that moment. He just said, listen, it doesn't matter. I think he said he might have came out of his jersey if he had to. I don't think the NBA would have liked it. He was about doing whatever it took. And I'm sure we get in that moment again, he's going to do whatever it takes again. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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