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NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: HEAT v PACERSMay 26, 2014Chris BoshMIAMI, FLORIDA: Game Four Indiana Pacers - 90 Q. For as cerebral as you are, for as much as you understand the game and all of those things, is it sometimes as simple as seeing the first couple of shots go down and have it change everything? CHRIS BOSH: Yeah, I think sometimes it's all about simplifying everything and just getting back to the basics. As a scorer, you always want to see your first shot go in or the first couple of shots or at least get some open looks and try to really change your luck a little bit. I was able to do that, and that helped me just be aggressive as the game went on. I kind of put the cerebral stuff to bed. So I'm really not thinking too much anymore and just going out and playing. Q. Chris, the start the team had, obviously, your shots contributed to that, but how much did that allow you guys to sort of exhale, that finally you're not fighting the uphill battle, and how much did it let you guys build on it from that point? CHRIS BOSH: I wouldn't say "exhale". It was good to get off to a good start, more so defensively. The shots were falling early, and that usually happens at home, but to start turning them over a little bit, we played the game we wanted to play from beginning to end with the pressure and everything, and we just really changed up their looks and just gave them something to think about. That kind of really got into them a little bit, and we were able to kind of dictate the tempo and change it into our game from the beginning. Q. Chris, did you do anything to change your routine or anything just to change your whole mindset and clear your mind? CHRIS BOSH: Yeah, stop shooting so much. Sometimes you just have to let everything go, and that's been kind of my process for the past couple of days. I just felt I could give more to the team. Of course, I'll take a win every day. That's most important to me, but if I can contribute and shoot a high percentage and help out on the boards, play good defense, that was more so my mindset, a defensive first kind of feel, and everything else will follow. So that's all I was thinking about. I'll try to make sure I do that for the rest of this series and the season. Q. Chris, what were the emotions like when you hit those first two three‑pointers? CHRIS BOSH: No emotion. I just wanted to keep it going. If you see one go in, you want two, and then you want three. So I guess greed, a little bit greedy. I just wanted to get off to a good start. I wanted to be aggressive tonight, and I wanted to play good basketball. Sometimes it's always difficult in my situation to kind of do that, but tonight was a good night. Q. Chris, you used the word "greed", were you actively looking for shots? It looks like your teammates were looking for you early. Were you also looking to get in spots where you could get shots in addition to that? CHRIS BOSH: Yes, in the beginning of the game, Coach drew up a play for me, and I pretty much made up my mind that I was going to shoot it. Really after that, it's a funny thing, when my teammates see me being aggressive like that and the shots do go in, they look for me a little more, and I try to make their job a little easier. All in all, I think the start is what did it for me. That gave my teammates confidence to hit me when I'm open, but that was a responsibility for me to make sure that I move it to the second situation and third situation if I didn't have a shot or a drive. Q. Chris, you hit several shots in a row to begin the game, and then you took Hibbert off the dribble. Is that something that you need to hit a couple shots to get that feel? CHRIS BOSH: Yeah, I mean, it's about mixing it up. You always want to say, well, I've got to hit a couple of shots to really get him to come up on me, and that's true sometimes. But he's a good defender. You really just have to mix it up by being aggressive in different ways, trying to get him off the dribble, trying to really make him think about something instead of just timing my rhythm on the jump shots and making sure he can really get good contests. It was good for me. It was a little bit easier tonight because the first few went in, so I was able to work off that. Q. And then you used the word "cerebral", you had to get rid of cerebral. Did you have some kind of mental crisis that you had to overcome? CHRIS BOSH: No, no, no, no. Mental crisis, that's for the weak‑minded, my friend (laughing). Q. Chris, when you guys go up 3‑1, it has always immediately led to 4‑1; you guys are 8‑0 in that scenario. Why have you guys been so good in these close‑out situations? And how critical is it for you guys to try to finish it off on Wednesday? CHRIS BOSH: Any time you have an opportunity to close out against a very good team, we want to take care of business and do that. For us, I think we get the feel, and we can sense a really important opportunity. Obviously, it's 3‑1. We know we can close it out, but it's going to be a very hostile environment. We're expecting that. We're expecting them at their best. It's always extremely hard to close out a team. We come and play our best basketball, and it's going to be an exciting challenge because it's going to be on the road. We're looking forward to it. Q. Chris, the lineup and the rotation has changed throughout this series, different starting fives, and guys off the bench playing different shares of minutes. What do you think of the moves that Spoelstra has made? CHRIS BOSH: They're good. We always talk about how deep we are. When we put this team together and we bring guys in, we always say that we need to really rely on our guys to step up in different situations. You always have to put your money where your mouth is. It's always important to walk the walk as well. So Rashard, he came in and gave us great minutes tonight on defense. I know his shot is eventually going to fall. He took some great wide‑open looks, and we had to make up that room for Bird. U.D., he comes in and does what he normally does. So it was a good all‑around effort by the team. Hopefully, we can keep this momentum for Wednesday. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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