Dwyane Wade: Miami Heat Won’t Let Boston Celtics ‘Punk’ Them


The Boston Celtics promised to rough up the Miami Heat in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals tonight, but Dwyane Wade and LeBron James aren’t exactly quaking in their boots. From the Sun-Sentinel: “A day after Boston Celtics guard Rajon Rondo said, ‘they’ve got to hit the deck, too,’ the Miami Heat treated the comment as routine postseason fodder. ‘I mean,’ forward LeBron James said, ‘I don’t really prepare for something I already think that’s going to happen every game, so I don’t have to prepare for it.’ […] ‘We’re men just like they’re men. We’re not going let nobody come in and punk us,’ guard Dwyane Wade said. ‘But that’s not our mentality, to go out there and make people hit the deck.’ With Rondo somewhat backtracked Wednesday, Heat coach Erik Spoelstra declined to be drawn into the conversation. ‘That’s all part of the playoffs,’ he said of the rhetoric. ‘Nope, we’re not even going to get into it. It’s about the game. And we understand that. There will be a lot of different distractions and noise out there.’ But he also said it isn’t as if the Heat would back down. […] James said it is not as if Rondo had to issue any sort of warning shot. ‘I expect physical play,’ he said. ‘I expect to be quote, unquote put on the deck, whatever the case may be.’ And then? ‘You just go to the free-throw line, go up there, and make ’em’ he said. ‘That’s what it’s about.’ Of course remaining ambulatory also would be helpful. ‘Obviously,’ Wade said, ‘you have to protect yourself.'”