Wade doesnt want to play bully basketball with the Celtics.

After a Game One loss that looked for a long time like it would enter the win column, Dwyane Wade thinks his Miami Heat need to make some changes. (Sports Illustrated)

“It’s not a big adjustment,” he said. “Coming off the little scrum we had, the biggest adjustment is going to be, how can guys keep their focus on the task? When you talk about just playing basketball, we’ve been successful. But if you want to talk about bully basketball and rah-rah and that kind of thing, that’s more their game than ours. So we can’t get into their game if we want to win.”

Still Jermaine O’Neal expects the games to continue to have a fierce level of physicality. “I’m sure there’s going to be more pushing, more grabbing, more holding,” he told the Miami Herald. “I said it coming into the series. It would be a slugfest.”

Michael Beasley sides with Wade about keeping away from the extra-curricular activities, but for an entirely different reason. “I love my money too much, to be completely honest,” he told WEEI. “You do anything, it’s a fine, and I don’t want to give away any money.”

Besides his own pockets, there are other reasons Beasley doesn’t want the rest of the series to get too chippy. “That’s their M.O,” he said. “They’re loud, they talk through the whole game. We’re not going to get out of our game. We’re going to stay focused and let them do what they do.”

At the same time, Beasley doesn’t want his Heat to back down. (WEEI)

Speaking after the Celtics’ 85-76 win over Miami in Game 1 of the teams’ first round Eastern Conference playoff series, Heat forward Michael Beasley suggested that the Celts were going to try and use intimidation throughout the playoffs. “They’re physical, we got physical. We’re not going to back down,” Beasley said. “They’re a real physical team and I think they tried, and are going to try, to punk us throughout the series, and it’s not going to happen.”

Dwyane Wade thinks Quentin Richardson is a big reason why the Heat won’t get “punked.” “That’s Q,” Wade told the Miami Herald. “That’s what I know. I love him for it. At times he can drive me crazy with it. It is what it is, but that’s Q. That’s a toughness he brings.”

For the good guys, Kevin Garnett says emotional, physical play is what they do, and toughness needs to be a part of them.  Still, he said even before learning of his one-game suspension for Game Two, the Celtics have to be able to control themselves. (first WEEI link)

“I think we need to play with emotion, to be honest with you,” Garnett said. “I think emotion is a sense of passion. Playing at home, [we] definitely have to defend home court. I think that’s important. I think we need to come out and play with that same energy. We know our schemes, we know what we’re doing, and continue to be aggressive.”

He added, “I wouldn’t say [emotions are] good or bad; it’s when you let your emotions get the best of you. I can say that. Situations to where you have to sort of bite down a little bit and understand what the situation is, in that sense. But it’s an emotional game, it’s a very, very high intensity game. Everybody’s playing with those same emotions. Both sides are playing fiery basketball, and it’s aggressive. So at some point you have to be in control of yourself.”

I don’t want any more suspensions to be handed out (at least to Celtics), but I would love to see some more physical play tonight.  It represents the effort, devotion and passion that has so largely been absent for the Celtics all season long.  Miami coach Erik Spoelstra did a nice job of describing the effort factor of Game One when discussing what Game Two will boil down to.

“Again, it’ll be about effort, disposition and execution,” Spoelstra told the Miami Sun Sentinel. “All of those areas we got pretty much beat at.”