PISTONS.COM

PLAYER OF THE GAME

Dwyane Wade Points: 25 FGM-A: 9-11 Assists: 5 Blocks: 1 Minutes: 27

"Other guys are going to have to make some plays, loosen things up for him.”

The energy seemed to just kind of start, stop, start, stop, then fourth quarter ...is that a reflection of the seven game series, or was that a reflection of their strong play?
"I'm sure it's a combination of both. I think that when you have a series and you come back, you become more emotionally drained maybe than physically. When you start another series, you've got to start all over again, and especially when you're in a situation where you fall behind as we did, we were swimming upstream the whole time. We gained a little bit of momentum, I think took the lead 63 60, and they came down and hit a couple threes out of our offense actually when we missed some shots and they got some shots on transition, and it was like the momentum changed at that point.”

You actually out shot them 82 shots to 64. Do you think it was just a fatigue factor?
"We out shot them because we got them to turn the ball over more. We had nine offensive rebounds. I mean, I'm not going to use that as an excuse. I mean, are we tired, yeah, probably everyone is at this point that you play. But we had opportunities to take control, and we didn't do it when the opportunity arose. Whether it was fatigue that entered into that or not, I just know that we didn't make good basketball plays at times, and that's the thing that's the most disappointing.”

The second quarter Wade got three, Shaq got three, but you guys didn't really take advantage of that.
"Well, we were down 11 or 12. We actually took advantage of getting ourselves back in the game. We had another opportunity when Wade picked up his fourth, and we just couldn't sustain our runs. That was it I think more than anything else. Even when we made stops, our pace as far as up the floor and into our offense and our cuts were not crisp, not what you're going to need as far as to get open and get open looks and try to get on some sort of a run, which we weren't able to do.”

Was Rasheed laboring any more tonight than he might have been in Game 7 or Game 6?
"I think that Sheed is he's had a long stretch here just from the standpoint of not only just playing, but the amount of energy, he's had to go through rehab and a lot of things. He looked worn a little bit tonight. So we've got to get him and everybody else, we've got to get rejuvenated quick. The game on Thursday becomes a huge game, I mean, no question. We've got to grab the momentum of the series back, so that's got to be our main focus. And in order to do that, we're going to have to be both mentally and physically sharp as much as we can.”

Given everything you just said, is there a little more concern because they were able to beat you with Dwyane on the bench for so much of the game and with Shaq in foul trouble in the first half?
“Uh uh, no. That really doesn't matter to me at all. He wasn't sitting on the bench because he wanted to, you know. We forced him into making some tough plays. Shaq wasn't sitting there because he wanted to. Ben and those guys did a great job. You know, they had other guys that stepped up, played great for them. Gary was good, Antoine, everybody, their supporting cast was good. That was the difference.”

Being that after Thursday the next two are in Miami, is it something to be really concerned about, or do you see that, A, this is a long series and we've got a long way to go?
“When you get to this point in the season where it's Eastern Conference Finals, the road, playing on the road doesn't mean that much, you know what I'm saying. We're looking at the best two teams in the Eastern Conference, two of the best role teams in the league, so it's one game at a time, really. Neither one of these teams are going to be fazed with where they're playing at. A lot of experienced guys, both teams got a lot of personnel that have fought a lot of different battles on the road and at home, so that really doesn't concern me.”

Talk about if you would, please, the shots you guys were getting the shots but not hitting them, so is there a silver lining that we were getting our shots?
“Yeah, we're going to go back and look at the tape, but obviously we know we can get the shots that we talked about we would have open before the game; we had them. We just couldn't knock them down. You really can't control whether the ball is going in the hoop or not, but we got what we wanted. We got exactly what we wanted and couldn't capitalize on it.”

The adjustments for Game 2?
“Well, we're going to play the same way. We're just going to play extremely hard. When we have our opportunities we want to try to throw it into the post. We're going to do the same things, and hopefully the shots we know we can make, we can make some of them.”

Considering how tough this last series is in this first game, is it kind of an emotional roller coaster for you guys?
“Well, it always is for us. We seem to always when our backs are against the wall, be very attentive and very focused. It's nothing new for us. We always put ourselves in this situation, not on purpose, they put us in the situation tonight, but we're going to be fine, man, going to be fine.”

On Detroit’s play:
“We looked tired throughout the whole game. There were certain parts of the game, we brought some energy here and there and you obviously can’t do that against a good team so hopefully we can recover and be fresh for the next game.”

On the importance of tying up the series:
“It’s important no matter what series you’re playing in. If you lose your first two games it’s always tuff coming back. So, it’s definitely important that we come out with some energy the next game and try and get one.”

"When Dwyane went out obviously he was very frustrated and eager when he got back in the fourth quarter and was very good.”

What did you do defensively that was so effective against the Pistons' back court?
“We didn't change our defense; we emphasized certain things, really emphasized certain things. In the first half they were eight out of 12 on drives to the basket, and they were 14 for 14 on free throws. We don't want to put them on the line, especially when we're in the penalty, perimeter fouls. We know that they also are a great, great shooting team, so we want to close out their airspace, but we weren't closing out the drive very well."

"But we didn't make any major adjustments. We're just more aware of things that they do that we have to concentrate and focus on, period.”

There's so much talk, people have talked about the Pistons defense. Were you surprised it was a sieve tonight?
“I don't think it was a sieve. We made shots. We scored 85, something like that. We made shots, we had guys make big plays at timely times. Dwyane made some incredible plays in the fourth quarter to give us the distance, but Zo made a huge jump hook in the lane, Gary made some runners, and Posey hit a three, so everybody contributed. I just think it was a hard fought game, and we ended up making enough players to win it.”

You went to the Hack a Ben for one possession, just one, with the lead. Was that almost as much a psychological...
“No, it wasn't. I've been here with the Pistons with leads, and when they get on a run, they get on a run by making threes, which is what they were doing, and getting back in the game. So I think if you're eight to ten points ahead in the fourth quarter and you've got a 25 percent free throw shooter, I think you have to take your chances on that one possession. It isn't something that I would make a habit of doing. I didn't want them to come out of that timeout and get a three and gain some more momentum, so that's the only reason I did it.”

What does Dwyane have to do differently not to get in that kind of trouble?
“He had a couple fouls. I think Lindsey gets in front of him. He had three offensive fouls tonight. He usually keeps his feet under him pretty good and doesn't draw the charge. Dwyane is usually pretty good about making sure he's not getting fouls that aren't earned, so I don't think it'll be a problem.”

Rasheed Wallace was barely a factor offensively tonight for the Pistons. Was that something that you did or something you tried to do?
“We tried to work him. There's a couple of guys that you can't let all five of their four scorers get everything they want, so somewhere you've got to do some things to limit somebody, and we were just committed to try to make him work in his post offensive game and close hard on his threes. I think that morning anything else we didn't double team him, we did some things in the post on him, but he didn't get the number of open looks that he normally gets. I hope that doesn't change.”

Talk about Dwyane's start and how important that was to kind of keep them at bay and keep them from getting momentum early?
“He started Game 6 the same way he started Game 4 up in New Jersey. He said he was very, very fresh. He felt real fresh. I can tell he was very active. We usually go to Shaq early, which is what we did, but Dwyane was very involved in getting involved early. That isn't something I discussed with him, that's something he just feels. He was very aggressive and got us off to a great start.”

Do you get real excited about getting this first one, or is it too long of a series...
“This is going to be a dogfight. We're happy to be able to get the first one. They're coming off of that seven game series. I'm sure that had an impact on them. There's a lot of pressure on them to respond, and so we just go and get ourselves ready for Game 2, and that's it, and handle this one as a win and move on.”

"We're playing with an unbelievable rhythm right now. They played good defense. (James) Posey came out and hit some shots, J-Dub (Jason Williams) was aggressive, Gary (Payton) was aggressive. That's what it's going to take, a total team effort, especially against a championship team like Detroit. The guys played well and we played with a lot of energy. Our motto is, 'No excuses.' We wanted to take care of the ball. We were very well rested and we just wanted to play well.”

Talk about Gary Payton:
“Gary Payton came out and played good veteran ball. He didn't make too many mistakes, shot the ball well, went to the hole and just played good team ball, and that's what it's all about. We're going to have to play excellent team ball to match up with this great Detroit team.”

Does this game have any effect on Thursday's game?
“No, we just wanted to come and get one. Now that we've got one, we're going to be focused on trying to get the other one.”

Do you think the Pistons were fatigued?
“No, we just came out and played our game. Dwyane and myself got in early foul trouble, but the other guys just picked it up. We've limited our mistakes. We've had leads in this building before and we've just had costly turnovers at bad times and they capitalize on our mistakes. The last two to three minutes, we really took care of the ball, hit some big shots and everybody just stayed aggressive.”

You seemed to be in the zone tonight. Talk about that Pistons defense, didn't play real well, you guys played great.
“We played all right. I think we came out early, really focused, had a lot of energy. We've been off for seven days, so we used that early on and made shots. Our game plan was to get the ball to Shaq early and I got an attack and got off to a great start, and that start gave us confidence for the rest of the game. Even when they made a run, we still had the confidence.”

After the great start you had to sit for a while with foul trouble. How frustrating was that to sit there and watch, and then talk about your fourth quarter when you finally got out there and played well:
“It's tough to sit. We're used to playing a lot of minutes. But my teammates did a great job of keeping the lead until halftime and making plays. I was in the groove tonight, and I didn't really get a chance to use my groove night tonight. Hopefully I can pick up where I started from or left off in Game 2.”

What do you have to do differently to make sure you don't get into that foul trouble in the first place?
“I don't know. Games are called different. I'm just going to continue to be aggressive, be a little smarter, but at the same time continue to be aggressive, and hopefully things go my way next time.”

Considering you won this one after 3 and 4 in Miami, how big is Thursday for you guys?
“It's a big game. We take it one game at a time, that's what we did tonight. We're going to come out Thursday and try to win the ballgame. That's what we do, put ourselves in position on the road to win the ballgame in the fourth quarter. We're going to try, just like we did tonight.”

Obviously getting Game 1 on the road is big no matter what, but winning a game when you're limited to 26 minutes and Shaq is in foul trouble, does that make even a bigger psychological boost for you guys, that it was other guys that came up and made big plays?
“Well, yeah. Our guys have been doing that from the Chicago series, the whole New Jersey series and beginning of this one. Our guys are stepping up. Alonzo played big for us tonight on both ends of the floor, Antoine was once again solid, Jason hit some shots, so we had a lot of guys step up tonight and do different things. For you to win this time of the year that's what's going to have to happen. Like I said, hopefully that continues to happen.”

Did sitting a lot the first three quarters help you in the fourth quarter? Did you feel really fresh?
“Yeah, I was very fresh, good way to get back in the ballgame. I played the whole first quarter and after that maybe played six more minutes until the fourth. I was waiting for my time to get in, and once I got in I knew I was going to be aggressive, shooting the ball, had the ball in my hands. That rest actually did help me some, but at the same time I would have loved to have been in there in the second and third quarter, but it didn't happen for me tonight. Hopefully it's a different story next game.”

Pat Riley said we think of you guys as role players, but Gary and Alonzo, they still remember how to do it. What do you think of that?
“Well, we've been here before. We're into our careers and stuff like that. I've been here for 16 years, Zo has been for 14. We know what to do. It's not like we haven't ever been here. We know how to make plays. When we get the basketball, we're going to make things happen. It's not like we're rookies or anything. We've been in this situation, Eastern Conference Finals, before, the Western, so it's no big thing for us.”

You've had some rough playoff games in this building the last couple playoff rounds with the Lakers and then this one. How good did it feel to just shut them down and kind of hold Chauncey quiet?
“That don't bother me. It's only been the Lakers series that everybody really said I have a rough series, that's all. I really don't worry about that. I don't look at one year or one series or whatever. When we come in here we try to play as one, as the Miami Heat. I don't look at that. All I do is play basketball, and whatever comes, comes.”

Can you just talk about Dwyane Wade's performance right off the bat and then again in the fourth quarter?
“Well, that's what he's good at, you know. That's our go to guy. He's the one that keeps us motivated and moving. Unfortunately he was in foul trouble. It would have been a lot better for us if he had stayed on the floor a little bit more, but we did a great job. A lot of guys stepped up. Game 2 might be different. I think he's going to know he's going to have to do more different things not to get in foul trouble. We held it, and it was good for us.”

Even though you weren't with the Heat last season, this time against the Pistons in the Eastern Conference Finals, is that especially a time for you guys and some of the guys, the acquisitions that were made were brought in for this purpose?
“That's what he brought us here for. He brought us to get over the hump, win the finals, get the championship. We're just playing. He brought us here and we're going to do whatever we can to help the Miami Heat get a championship.”

You made it look easy tonight. Was that something that the Pistons did differently? Was there anything they did that you didn't expect? Or was it just being in a zone?
“We just played. It was fortunate that we got a win. We take one game at a time. We don't come here and say nothing was easy. I don't know what they shot, I don't know what we shot. They might have been missing a lot of shots and stuff like that, but we just play. We go one game at a time, and that's our philosophy.”