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NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: HEAT v PACERSMay 22, 2014Dwyane WadeMIAMI, FLORIDA: Practice Day Q. Getting home court advantage. They wanted that. 82 games they fought for it. In one game, they made it disappear. Is that kind of a body blow to them? DWYANE WADE: No. They won a game here last year. Our home court advantage went away, and we had to figure out a way to get it back. It's not really a body blow when you're a good team and you can win on the road. Q. Dwyane, with what Paul George is going through, you've had your share of injuries, even knocks to the head. When you have something like a concussion and you're a player and you sort of want to play through, how tough is it is to say, hey, I need some time off. I need to follow the league's concussion protocol? DWYANE WADE: Well, you have to. When it comes to a situation like that where it's medical and it's important for your health, you must follow the protocol. The fortunate thing about it, at least you have days in between the games, which he's able to recover by Saturday. Hopefully, all is well, and he'll be out there, and he's Paul George on Saturday. We want to make sure both teams have all their weapons going into the game. Q. When you hit him with your knee, did you think it was that severe? Were you surprised with the fact that it was diagnosed as a concussion? DWYANE WADE: When my knee hit his head? Q. Yeah. DWYANE WADE: No, not when I hit him with my knee. No, you don't know. It's a bang‑bang play, two guys going for the ball. I know he stayed down for a while, but then he came right back in the game, and I was talking to him a little bit. You could tell he was a little dazed when he got hit because he stayed down for a while, but he sucked it up and came right back in. Q. When you were talking to him throughout the game after that, did you see any difference? DWYANE WADE: I don't know. I'm not a doctor. I just asked him was he okay and talked about kind of how it happened. After that, we were playing, and those were the last four minutes of the game. So you're just trying to win. Q. Dwyane, what's it like with the decision‑making here when Erik sort of lets you guys pick matchups? When LeBron says Norris might be the best option there on Lance, what's sort of the atmosphere like? Is it because you've grown together as a team? Take us through that process. DWYANE WADE: It's just a trust, our coach trusting us to know in certain situations, certain moments. Sometimes he wants certain guys to guard other guys as well, but in certain moments he trusts us to come up with what we feel is best, you know, how the game is going, how a guy's playing, what a guy's strengths are as well. Q. What's it like going through the process? Do you ask Erik, can we have Norris? Do you go to the player, do you want to guard him? Take us through the huddle. It's a short huddle, 90 second. What's it like? DWYANE WADE: It's a combination of it all. There's no A, B, or C way to do it. Like I said, it's the feel of the game. It's the feel of how the guy's playing, who's on the court for the other team, who's on the court for us. It varies, man. Q. What's it like to have that trust from Spo and from the staff? DWYANE WADE: We wouldn't be champions if we didn't have it. We wouldn't be the team we are today if we didn't have the trust from both sides to understand that we don't have all the answers, they don't have all the answers. We're figuring it all out together. A lot of it is on the fly at times. Q. Are there things that you see that you feel on the floor that he can't see just a few feet away from the sidelines? DWYANE WADE: Who's he? Q. Erik. DWYANE WADE: I don't know what he can see. I'm not going to say what my coach can't see. He does a good job. But as a player, you're out there on the floor, so you get a different feel for the game when you're out there and you're in the battle, you're in the fight. But he's done a good job. He's done a great job. He'll try to do his best to make sure that we have what we need out on the floor to win ball games. At certain times as a player, when you feel, especially as a lead and captain, you feel someone can help you. Only thing you can do is voice your opinion. Doesn't mean he has to go with it. But like I said, it's just about having that communication. Q. During the regular season, when you were out of the lineup to be fresh for the playoffs, was that tough to go through? Were you thinking bigger picture? DWYANE WADE: When you have a situation where we're so blessed and so lucky enough to play into June, you get two months off at best. A lot of guys in the NBA have five, six months to rest when they come off an injury. I had two months. Instead of coming back to the season and saying, okay, I'm going to wait until January to get on the court, we came up with our own plan and came up with our own way. We felt it worked for us. Q. Physically, do you feel you benefited from it? Not just in hindsight, but do you feel it was a success for you and now you're glad? DWYANE WADE: Yes. Q. Is it rewarding to make an impact night after night during these playoffs after you have after being inserted into the lineup? DWYANE WADE: Yeah. Obviously, it wasn't ideal for me to miss pretty much the last 2 1/2 weeks of the season. I feel at certain times I'm still getting my rhythm. I think the last few games I've really been in a good flow. Basketball is a funny thing. You've got to try to stay in. You've got to stay in it mentally and physically the place that you're in and continue to play well. There's only been two games in this series, but I want to continue to play well. If it's a night when my shots aren't going, I have to find another way to impact the game. That's what it's all about. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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