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NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: HEAT v PACERSMay 28, 2014LeBron JamesDwyane WadeINDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA: Game Five Miami Heat - 90 Q.  LeBron, it's very uncharacteristic of you to get into foul trouble early. First three fouls early in the ballgame. Talk to us about what happened there and what your mindset was going forward. LeBRON JAMES: I picked up some early fouls. It's definitely something I'm not accustomed to, but my teammates kept it going and put us in a position to win. That's all we can ask for. Q. LeBron, can you talk about Rashard Lewis and what he's been able to contribute. I know, Wade, you said, "He's going to make a shot one of these days," and he finally did and knocked down six threes. LeBRON JAMES: We needed it. We needed every bit of it. Wish it would have resulted in a win when he started to make shots, it was big time. He gave us huge minutes. His timely shots, defensive activity. He's been great ever since he's been inserted into the lineup for sure. Q. LeBron, can you go through that last play and what you saw obviously with Roy coming to help? LeBRON JAMES: Just called it out. I was able to get into the paint, drew two, and saw C.B. in the corner in his sweet spot. Thought we got a pretty good look. You live with the result. Q. What did you think when Lance Stephenson came and blew in your ear? LeBRON JAMES: I don't really‑‑ I mean, I'm just here to play basketball, man. All the extracurricular activities, I don't really get into. I mean, I'm just trying to win. We need one more game to get The Finals. That's my only concern. We put ourselves in a position to win tonight, and as competitors, as professionals, that's what we are. At the end of the day, we put ourself in a position to win. All the extra, whatever Lance wants to deal with, I don't really care about that. Q. Dwyane, when he picked up the early fouls, what was the mindset amongst the rest of you guys to maintain the lead? And then what kind of happened there in the third quarter to turn the game around? DWYANE WADE: Well, it was just, whenever a guy goes down, obviously, our leader, we've just got to come together. Guys got to come in the game and continue to try to be a positive when they're in there. I thought we did a great job in the first half of going into the break up nine. We didn't do everything perfect, but we did what we needed to do. Third quarter, they got some things to go. Offensively, we really couldn't get a rhythm. But I thought our defense was great. I thought we gave ourself a chance all night because of our defense. Even when they took an 11‑point lead, we still had an opportunity. Our offense, we feel that we will have shots, we will get our moments, but defensively, I thought we stayed in it all night and gave ourself a chance to win. On the road, that's all you can ask for. Even without LeBron playing and putting his imprint on the game, we did that. We had an opportunity. It was right there. We just came up a little short. Q. LeBron, when you have to sit and watch so much of a basketball game that's important to you, how does that affect your mindset going into Game 6? LeBRON JAMES: Absolutely not. It's a clean slate for myself. It sucks for me because I'm not able to make plays to help our team win. I made a couple in the fourth, but 24 minutes is not enough for me to make an imprint on the game like I know I'm accustomed to doing or I know I can do. So you just continue to help the guys from the bench, let them know what you can see when you're in foul trouble, and ways we can try to exploit them. But I'm much better on the floor than I am off of it for sure. Q. Does it make you more eager for the next game to come quicker? LeBRON JAMES: I mean, it is what it is. We go back home. We learn from our mistakes tonight, and tomorrow we get ready for Friday. Q. D‑Wade, you guys turned the ball over 17 times, didn't have LeBron in the ballgame, gave up 21 points on those 17 turnovers, but you only lost by three points. How frustrating is it to you guys that you just lost by three? You could have won. You really could have won this ballgame. DWYANE WADE: We've got to do better, led by me having six turnovers. On the road, you can't give them that many opportunities. They did a good job. Paul George made some big shots tonight. You can't give them extra opportunities, especially when we don't have our whole unit out there. So that was a poor job by us, led by me, but we still gave ourself an opportunity. The game of basketball is an imperfect game, and we made mistakes, but we put ourselves in a position to win, and ultimately, that's our only goal. Q. LeBron, you said before this game, you said you guys didn't want to have to go back to Miami for a Game 6. How critical does Game 6 become so you don't have to come back into this building? LeBRON JAMES: I said that? Q. Yeah, you did. LeBRON JAMES: You think or I said that? Q. You said something like that. LeBRON JAMES: Yeah, I don't think I said that. Q.  Something like that. LeBRON JAMES: Yeah, okay. Don't worry about it. Obviously, we don't want to come back. We come here to win. We'll focus on Game 6 now. Like I said before, we focus on the things that we can control and not the things we can't control. We learn from our mistakes. 17 turnovers on the road for 21 points is definitely not winning basketball in no way, shape, or form. Like D‑Wade said, this game is imperfect. You cover for those mistakes. At the end of the day we put ourselves in position to win, and we look forward to the game on Friday. Q. Is there an extra sense of urgency? LeBRON JAMES: It's Eastern Conference Finals, it should be urgency no matter what. Q. LeBron, do you think the biggest key for Game 6 down in South Beach is replicating the three‑point barrage up at the line or limiting turnovers? LeBRON JAMES: You can't control shots going in. It's a make‑or‑miss league. I think turnovers for sure. You can control that. You're going to have some. We're an attack team. We're going to have attack turnovers. Some of the careless turnovers, some of the swing passes, some of the entry passes where we were careless with them and we allowed them to get into the open floor, those are some of the things we can clear. Q. LeBron, besides the goofiness with Lance, it looked like in the second half you were concerned he was sticking his leg underneath you. Did you feel there was a dirty element to some of the stuff that was going on out there? LeBRON JAMES: No.  We don't get involved in things that we can't control. That's not how we play ball. Only thing we can control is how we approach the game in Game 6. Lance is Lance. He's going to do what he needs to do to help his team win. As to the leaders of our team, we're going to do what it takes to help our team win. The game is reffed by the refs. They ref how they see it. We play it, and you live with the results. Q. LeBron, on the final play, I asked Roy Hibbert about it, and his perspective, he said, "You've got the best player in the world going to the hole." He was relieved to see you not go because he figured you'd probably get a call or else score and maybe win the game. Your thoughts on his thoughts? LeBRON JAMES: I mean, it's easy to say that after the fact. It's like playing cards, that's why they got backs on them. You don't know what's going to happen. For me, my teammates trust me that I'm going to make the right play to help us win. I trust myself that I'm going to make the right play to help us win. And win, lose, or draw, you live with that. I don't‑‑ it doesn't matter from somebody else's perspective. We got a great look. C.B. makes that shot, then we go, we get a stop, and we're headed to The Finals. So it's a make‑or‑miss league. You don't think about things you could do in the past. You just correct them in the future. Q. Dwyane, have either one of you ever thought about blowing in someone's ear as a defensive tactic? LeBRON JAMES: Probably my wife. I blew in my wife's ear before. That was definitely a defensive tactic. DWYANE WADE: (Laughing) That's the second time that's happened to you. LeBRON JAMES: That's the second time it's happened to me, right? DWYANE WADE: It's the second time it's happened to you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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