During the course of USA Basketball training camp, players will be checking in on a regular basis to give you the scoop on what's going on in Las Vegas and in the minds of the team as they prepare for the 2006 FIBA World Championships.

Dwyane Wade | Chris Bosh | Shawn Marion
Previous Player Blogs: July 20 | July 19

Wade and the team got a lot of shots in on Friday. Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE/Getty Images

Today's practice was good. It was a mental day for us. We came in and got a lot of shots to really get accustomed to the three-point line and to really get accustomed to the way that we want to play drive-and-kick. So we came in and did that, worked on a little zone and worked on talking and getting to know each other on defense. That was what today was about.

That three-point line is a couple of feet in from what we're used to. You know you hit that shot a lot in the NBA, but the difference is that a lot of people don't shoot that shot as a set-shot in the NBA. Most guys shoot it as a catch-and-shoot or as a pull-up. That's the main difference. Now, you're setting up to shoot it as a regular three, so that's why it's a little different. But the distance will make you want to sit out there and shoot it.

Our whole gameplan is "If you're open, shoot it." No matter what, don't hesitate. But everyone should know their own strengths and what they can do best for this team and then try to use that. But we want everyone to shoot it because everybody can.

I think we also have a number of guys who are very athletic and will go to the boards, especially Dwight Howard, Amare Stoudemire and Chris Bosh, guys that can get in there and get tip dunks. So we want to come down and take the first shot available, kind of like Phoenix plays. Not necessarily run-and-gun, but we're running and taking the shots that are available, and it's hard to stop guys from getting offensive rebounds when you don't even know when they're coming.

It was good to get a little bit of a break today, no question. After going hard two practices a day and after a hard second session yesterday competing, to come in today and not get your body banged up was good for us, especially physically. And again, it was a great day for us mentally.

Today, we went to just one practice, which is a little bit of a reward and a precaution at the same time. Coach K has been doing this for a while. He doesn't want wear us out too much, but at the same time, he wants to reward us because we've been playing pretty hard the past two days. As long as we keep the practices intense and competitive, we can practice just once.

We went over zone stuff today. Working on zone offense and zone defense. But besides zone, we were working on man-to-man principles, rotations on defense and getting shots up. We just tried to do a couple of things without getting too physical. Like I mentioned before, he doesn't want to wear us out.

After two-a-days and coming fresh off the summer of working out, and being around great players like this in a competitive atmosphere, you start to feel it. Those two-a-days add up.

Today we came in and got some nice shots up, put in a new offense and a new defense. It was just a nice, relaxing day. We tried to keep it light with no contact. We got a lot of shots up and just had a little fun.

We've been going so hard for these first couple of days and to cut down injuries, sometimes you've got to ease up a bit and then get going again, you know. I'm very sore. Unless you've been playing ball, you're going to be sore after going hard for two days.

Coach K is a motivator. He knows we got to just go out here, do what we gotta do and just stick to the point.

I've played against or know everybody here that's been in the league for a while, but I hear Chris Paul has been working on his jumper a little bit and I can see it.