Tag: Manu Ginobili

Spurs’ stars easing into regular minutes

By Jeff McDonald

MIAMI — With three games left in the preseason, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich says it’s time to take the bubble wrap off his regulars.

The Spurs’ veterans, including 36-year-old Tim Duncan, 35-year-old Manu Ginobili and 30-year-old Tony Parker, need to ramp up to something approaching a full night’s work.

That time could come soon, perhaps as early as this afternoon at Miami.

“That process has begun,” Popovich said. “The starters want to have a rhythm at the beginning of the year. That will start to show itself as we move forward.”

That’s music to the ears of Ginobili, who says for conditioning’s sake he wouldn’t mind topping 30 minutes at least once this preseason.

Through four exhibition games, none of the Spurs’ Big Three 30-somethings are averaging more than Duncan’s 17.7 minutes per game. Duncan and Parker each have missed a game. Ginobili skipped two with a sore right heel.

“We’ve been having some good, long, tough practices that can get you there, too,” Ginobili said. “But probably one of these three games, a 30-plus minute game will be important to see where you’re at. I don’t know what Pop is thinking. We haven’t talked about it. But at least in one game, I’d like to have a season-like game.”

Conditioning has been on Ginobili’s mind since he left the London Olympics in August. Instead of propping his feet up during September, he stayed in shape by practicing two or three times a week with an Argentine club team.

“I hate it when I have to sit two or three weeks,” Ginobili said. “It feels like you have to start from scratch. I don’t like that.”

We meet again: The Spurs missed out on meeting LeBron James in the NBA Finals last season.

Several Spurs’ players did square off against James in high-stakes Olympic contests later in the summer, and the results weren’t pretty.

En route to gold, James’ Team USA ran through Ginobili’s Argentine team, Parker’s French team, and Patty Mills’ Australian squad. The Americans also bested Tiago Splitter’s Brazilian team in an exhibition in Washington before leaving for London.

Ginobili said James’ Olympic run — in which he averaged 13.3 points, 5.6 assists and 5.6 rebounds in 25 minutes per game — was as impressive as his Finals run.

“He’s been good since the first year,” Ginobili said. “He’s good. He probably does some things better (now), but he’s one of the best players ever. It’s not like he had to improve much.”

Visiting Vaughn: Popovich said he was looking forward to the second leg of the Spurs’ Florida trip, capped by a Sunday game at Orlando.

Jacque Vaughn, a former Spurs’ point guard and assistant coach, is the Magic’s new coach.

“In the regular season, we’ll be trying to beat each other’s brains in,” Popovich said. “The preseason is a lot more fun. We’ll have a lot of fun with that, try to screw with him. Just for kicks.”

jmcdonald@express-news.net

Things we’ve learned (or think we have) about Spurs

With four out of seven exhibition games in the books, the Spurs are a little more than halfway finished with their preseason. Though it’s difficult to draw too many conclusions from a set of games featuring more minutes from Cory Joseph, Nando De Colo and Eddy Curry than Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili and Tim Duncan, Express-News beat writer Jeff McDonald gives it a stab:

De Colo is part Argentine

He’s French, and he plays a little point guard, but that’s about the only similarity rookie Nando De Colo bears to Tony Parker. Where Parker emerged from the womb a scoring guard, De Colo at times seems allergic to shooting. Oh, but can he pass. De Colo’s slick assists — he’s averaging a team-best 4.8 per game — remind many Spurs of a young Manu Ginobili. With the Spurs jam-packed at both guard positions, De Colo is likely to begin the season at the end of the bench. If he ever does crack the rotation, however, get your popcorn ready.

Eddy Curry is hungry

No, not that kind of hungry. Hungry for a job. At 7-foot, 295 pounds, Curry arrived at training camp as in shape as he can be. The former fourth overall NBA draft pick has been a model camper, clearly motivated to resuscitate his career after appearing in only 24 games the past three seasons. Curry can still score, having notched double-digit outings in two of the Spurs’ four preseason games, but won’t help much in the rebounding or defensive departments. If he doesn’t earn the Spurs’ 15th roster spot, he’s bound to help some team this season.

There’s talent at the bottom

The Spurs don’t always carry a full 15-man roster into the regular season. But with NBA-experienced big men Curry, Josh Powell and Derrick Brown all providing positive moments, this is a year the Spurs might wish they could keep 17. Curry has size and offensive skill, Powell is averaging seven points on 9-of-10 shooting, and Brown has showcased his athleticism and enough versatility to defend small and power forwards. At this rate, cut day could come down to a high-stakes game of “eeny, meeny, miney, moe.”

Neal gets the point

In the race to become Parker’s primary backup, the incumbent holds a narrow lead. Gary Neal has been the first point guard off the bench in each preseason game, averaging a team-best 13 points while also contributing 2.5 assists and keeping his turnovers in check. More important, Neal — a shooting guard by trade — has done a credible job of running the second unit. Patty Mills, Joseph and De Colo can be expected to keep pushing Neal. If the season began today, however, he’s the backup point.

Size matters (maybe)

It hasn’t happened often. If you blinked, you probably missed it. But twice in the past two games, coach Gregg Popovich has deployed a lineup using 6-11 Tiago Splitter alongside 6-11 Tim Duncan. It is a Twin Towers look the Spurs largely avoided the past two seasons but one that could come in handy against, say, the Dwight Howard-Pau Gasol Lakers in the regular season. Stay tuned.

jmcdonald@express-news.net

Twitter: @JMcDonald_SAEN

No surprise: Pop indifferent to new flopping initiative

It came as no surprise that all-business, no-nonsense Gregg Popovich refrained from entering the fray when asked to comment on the NBA’s new anti-flopping initiative.

“I don’t think about it too much,” he said Thursday, and that’s very likely true. This is, after all, a man whose life philosophy can be summed up by one of his favorite phrases: Get over yourself.

He is very much in the minority, however, as evidenced by this massive list of comments compiled by .

Some of the standouts:

Tyson Chandler — ‘There are a lot of guys in the league that are in trouble.”

Kobe Bryant — “Shameless flopping, that’s a chump move.”

Anderson Verejao — “I’m not flopping anymore. I used to flop a little bit.”

Metta World Peace — “It’s the NBA Finals, a new lady is watching and never saw basketball, she sees (flopping) and wonders, ‘What is that?’ She won’t watch the game anymore.”

Whether you like it, hate it or, in Popovich’s case, don’t really care, it is here to stay — at least until January, when most of the NBA’s previous disciplinary crusades seem to have petered out.

Interestingly, it’s Tony Parker, and not Manu Ginobili, who was selected by the NBA to the type of offensive over-embellishment that will (supposedly) no longer be tolerated.

Other examples were provided by Reggie Evans, Dwyane Wade, Josh Smith, and of course, Chris “The Human Tornado” Paul.

In case you missed it, check out on just how difficult it is to catch flop master in the act, even after the fact.