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The Detroit Pistons and Miami Heat are battling it out in the Eastern conference finals of the 2005 NBA Playoffs. The best-of-seven series is currently tied at one game apiece. Here's what Pistons center Ben Wallace had to say a day before Game 3 will be played:

Q: How urgent is this for you and the team right now?

Ben Wallace: We just need to come out, relax, just play basketball, and do what we’ve been doing all our lives.

Q. How important is home court advantage?

Ben Wallace: It doesn’t mean anything if we don’t come out and play the way we are capable of playing. Home court hasn’t really meant a lot in these playoffs. You love to hear the fans cheering for you, but we’ve got to come out focused and ready to play. I don’t know anyone who expects to go in to someone else’s arena and have the fans cheer for them. This is the only place the fans cheer for me.

Q. Talk about Heat fans.

Ben Wallace: They did what they were supposed to do. They cheered for Miami, and booed for the Pistons. That is the bottom line, and that is how it goes.

Q. Talk about defending Dwyane Wade.

Ben Wallace: We don’t need to attack anyone any differently, but we need to come out relaxed and just play basketball. If you look back at that (Game 2) game, in the first half we had eight or nine turnovers, which lead to easy baskets for them. We dug a hole and had to fight to get out. We just need to come out and play our style of basketball. Dwayne hit some tough shots. Any time a guy gets it going early, the basket seems to open up and get big for him. There isn’t anything you can do when a guy is on a role like that. It isn’t every night that a guy is going to score 40 on us.

Q. Compare this current Pistons team to the Bad Boys.

Ben Wallace: I don’t compare this team to any team, or anybody. We are who we are. It is tough to compare one team to another. We just come out and play.

Q. How hard is it to deal with Shaq?

Ben Wallace: It is tough. Anytime you give up the size difference between me and Shaq it is going to be tough. Any time you get some rest it is going to help, no matter who you are. The way Shaq and I battle down in the paint isn’t going to decide the game, so we have to take care of the basketball.

Q. Strategy for Game 3?

Ben Wallace: We need to take better care of the ball, especially early in the game. We need to give ourselves the opportunity to come down and make shots, and I like our chances.

Q. Having Rasheed Wallace as a teammate, what's it like?

Ben Wallace: It is great to have Sheed here. He’s an All-Star caliber player who wants to be a part of a team, and it is rare that you find someone like that, so it is great to have him. On the road he loves to hear fans booing him. It revs him up and he feeds off of that energy.