Tag: Manu Ginobili

Ginobili heeds coach’s call, sparks Spurs in comeback

By Jeff McDonald

Manu Ginobili looked sharper Sunday than he had at any other point throughout the playoffs.

And that was before he ever set foot on the floor at the ATT Center.

A few hours before tipoff of Game 1 of the Western Conference finals, Ginobili — whose sartorial style might best be described as slacker chic — strolled into the locker room wearing a dapper gray sport coat over his button-down dress shirt.

It wasn’t until later that night, after he had Pied-Pipered a come-from-behind 101-98 victory over Oklahoma City, that Ginobili began to regret his choice of threads.

“It’s probably going to be the first and last time of the season,” Ginobili said, squinting in the glare of the TV lights. “I’m sweating like a pig.”

In all other respects, Ginobili proved ready for his close-up. With the chips down in the fourth quarter, the Thunder did not.

Ginobili broke from his playoff scoring slump — (alternate take: what slump?) — for a season-high 26 points, including 11 in the fourth quarter, to help the Spurs overcome a nine-point deficit and deny OKC a golden ticket to the first lead of the series.

It was vintage Ginobili, at a moment when the Spurs desperately needed it, their 19th consecutive victory in dire jeopardy.

“We started to count on him for a long stretch there,” Tim Duncan said. “He really did it for us.”

In his first game against OKC this year — he missed all three meetings in the regular-season — Ginobili showed the Thunder what they had been missing.

He was 3 of 5 from the 3-point line and 5 of 5 from the foul stripe, all his free throws coming in the fourth.

Two classic Ginobili drives in the final 1:57 essentially finished off OKC. The capper, in which he split a pair of defenders before finding the rim, put the Spurs up 96-89 with 1:11 to go.

“That’s Manu’s game,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. “He’s somebody we depend on to create and make things happen.”

Tony Parker added 18 points, six assists and a season-high eight rebounds, while Duncan had 16 points and 11 rebounds for his fifth double-double of the postseason.

Harder-earned than most, the victory gave the Spurs claim to one of the fourth-longest winning streaks in NBA history. Heading into the fourth quarter, with the Thunder up nine and rolling, that streak seemed on life support.

OKC already had forced 14 first-half turnovers, undermining any chance the Spurs had of generating offense, and Kevin Durant was heating up on his way to 27 points and 10 boards.

His team down seven, Popovich called a timeout and uttered the phrase soon likely to show up on bootlegged T-shirts across the Alamo City: “I want some nasty.”

Popovich got what he asked for, most obviously from Stephen Jackson, who spent every second of the final frame mugging Durant, then threw in a game-breaking 3-pointer for good measure.

But the Spurs also got a dose of nasty from Ginobili, who helped engineer a 30-11 run that flipped the game.

“Manu, I’m never worried about him,” Jackson said. “When it’s nut-cutting time, when we need him, we knew he’s going to be there.”

Ginobili came into the night averaging 11.3 points and shooting 25 percent from 3-point range in the postseason. There were signs early a breakout was in play.

Not long into his initial shift of the first quarter, Ginobili slithered for a few Ginobili drives. At the horn, he threw in an off-balance 3-pointer, then opened the second quarter with another.

“That’s when we knew,” Jackson said. “He was rolling.”

The last time Ginobili scored this many points: Game 5 against Memphis last postseason. He had 33 in an elimination game.

At times, Sunday had that feel. Had Ginobili been saving himself for this moment?

“I’m not that good,” he said. “It just happened. I don’t know how exactly.”

It’s a question the Thunder likely will be asking themselves up until tipoff of Game 2 on Tuesday. After losing control late in Game 1, Oklahoma City left the arena looking for reasons to hope.

“(The Spurs) are playing the best basketball in the league,” OKC coach Scott Brooks said. “And we were right there.”

The difference was Ginobili, who traded in his dress jacket for a superhero’s cape, just in the nick of time.

jmcdonald@express-news.net
Twitter: @JMcDonald_SAEN

SPURS VS. THUNDER
Western Conference finals
(Spurs lead best-of-7 series 1-0)

Game 1:

Game 2: Tuesday – Spurs vs. Thunder, 8:00 p.m. TNT

Game 3: Thursday – Spurs @ Thunder, 8:00 p.m. TNT

Game 4: Saturday – Spurs @ Thunder, 7:30 p.m. TNT

*Game 5: Monday June 4 – Spurs vs. Thunder, 8:00 p.m. TNT

*Game 6: Wednesday June 6 – Spurs @ Thunder, 8:00 p.m. TNT

*Game 7: Friday June 8 – Spurs vs. Thunder, 8:00 p.m. TNT

– All times Central
*If necessary

Spurs-Thunder: A clash of old and new

By Jeff McDonald

After sweeping through the Utah Jazz in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs, the top-seeded Spurs had to wait eight days to start the second round.

Once there, it took them all of six days to sweep the Los Angeles Clippers, too.

A second straight whitewashing earned the Spurs another extended break — six days before the start of the next round — with one seminal difference: This time, at least, they know what they are up against.

The Spurs’ first trip to the Western Conference finals in four years will open Sunday against fast-rising, second-seeded Oklahoma City at the ATT Center.

“At this point in the season, you want to know what you’re going to face,” guard Manu Ginobili said. “The uncertainty is not always good.”

When it comes to playing Oklahoma City, certainty can also be unsettling.

Propelled by the most prolific scoring trio in the NBA, the Thunder are sure to provide stiffer resistance than the two teams the Spurs just finished shredding like so much used Christmas paper.

Spurs coach Gregg Popovich gave his team the day off Tuesday, a day after Oklahoma City eliminated the L.A. Lakers to punch a ticket to San Antonio.

Popovich and his staff convened to break down film and begin to formulate a game plan for the Thunder, who feature a pair of All-Stars in NBA scoring leader Kevin Durant and volatile point guard Russell Westbrook, as well as the Sixth Man of the Year in James Harden.

“They’re great now,” Popovich said, “And the future’s even brighter.”

In a sense, this series sets up as a battle between the league’s old guard against its next wave.

The Spurs are a grizzled four-time champion eager for one more shot at the crown during the Tim Duncan era. The Thunder are a young and hungry challenger impatient to assume the throne now.

In order for the up-and-coming Thunder to take the next step, they must first overcome a savvy, veteran team that has successfully navigated this road before.

“They’ve been together for a while,” Westbrook said. “They’ve got a lot of tricks to their game. We have to step it up mentally.”

As much as the Spurs believe they have their hands full with Oklahoma City, the Thunder are equally wary of the surging Spurs, who are riding a franchise-best 18-game winning streak.

“It feels like they haven’t lost in a while,” Westbrook said.

If there is a secret to handling OKC, the Spurs seem to hold the key. Over the past three seasons, since the Thunder became playoff regulars in 2009-10, the Spurs have gone 8-2 against them.

That includes a 107-96 affair in Oklahoma City’s last trip to the ATT Center on Feb. 4, when Tony Parker erupted for a season-high 42 points at Westbrook’s expense.

“It looks like they don’t ever make mistakes,” Durant said.

After dispatching the NBA’s last two champions (Dallas and the Lakers) in the first two rounds — and needing just nine games to do it — the Thunder can’t help but feel like their time has arrived.

At a combined 68.4 points per game in the regular season, Oklahoma City’s star trio — and not the more ballyhooed triumvirate down in South Beach — ranked as the highest-scoring Big Three in the NBA.

Durant’s 28 points per game narrowly edged Kobe Bryant for the NBA lead, joining him with Michael Jordan as the only players since 1981 to win three consecutive scoring crowns.

“He’s one of the elites, and he will be his whole career,” Popovich said.

With Durant, the 23-year-old former collegiate player of the year at Texas, locked up until 2016 and the 23-year-old Westbrook under contract until 2017, an NBA Finals appearance seems only a matter of time for the Thunder.

The Spurs’ goal, starting Sunday: Delay Oklahoma City’s much-anticipated coronation for at least another year.

jmcdonald@express-news.net
Twitter: @JMcDonald_SAEN

SPURS VS. THUNDER
Western Conference finals (best-of-7)

Game 1: Sunday May 27 – Spurs vs. Thunder, 7:30 p.m. TNT

Game 2: Tuesday May 29 – Spurs vs. Thunder, 8:00 p.m. TNT

Game 3: Thursday May 31 – Spurs @ Thunder, 8:00 p.m. TNT

Game 4: Saturday June 2 – Spurs @ Thunder, 7:30 p.m. TNT

*Game 5: Monday June 4 – Spurs vs. Thunder, 8:00 p.m. TNT

*Game 6: Wednesday June 6 – Spurs @ Thunder, 8:00 p.m. TNT

*Game 7: Friday June 8 – Spurs vs. Thunder, 8:00 p.m. TNT

– All times Central
*If necessary

Spurs finally find out just what they’re up against

By Jeff McDonald

The Spurs arrived at their practice facility Sunday afternoon — for their third workout in six days with no game — to find they had drawn the opponent they had most desired in the Western Conference semifinals.

Somebody. Anybody.

“You can’t prepare for nobody,” guard Manu Ginobili said.

As far as the Spurs were concerned, the Los Angeles Clippers became their next somebody with a gritty Game 7 victory in Memphis, which finally cemented a second-round opponent beginning Tuesday at the ATT Center.

When the top-seeded Spurs hit the floor for the first time since finishing off Utah last Monday, Chris Paul and the Clippers — and not Zach Randolph and the Grizzlies — will be the team awaiting them.

For the Spurs, who had been going stir crazy scrimmaging each other in their own practice gym, the “who” is less important than the “finally.”

“It drives you a little crazy preparing for two teams at once,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. “One day, you think somebody’s going to win, then it changes. It went back and forth. At least now we know who we’re playing.”

In a well-coined phrase, made for T-Shirts: It’s Lob City.

In Paul and Blake Griffin, the KIA-hopping dunk-machine, the fifth-seeded Clippers come with more star power — and, perhaps, more firepower — than did the Jazz.

Widely considered the NBA’s premier point guard, the 27-year-old Paul averaged 20.4 points and 7.1 assists in the Memphis series. By force of will, he lifted the Clippers past a team that at times seemed vastly superior.

The Spurs are familiar with this playoff version of Paul. Then with New Orleans, he pushed the Spurs to seven games in the 2008 conference finals.

“He’s one of those players, you know he’s not going to give up,” Ginobili said.

Popovich described Paul in terms even more glowing: “He’s a future Hall of Famer.”

The presence of an almost-certain lock for Springfield is one thing that separates the Spurs’ next opponent from its last.

Another difference between the Clippers and Jazz: The Clippers have a few players who can shoot from outside 8 feet.

Case in point is Mo Williams, the reserve guard who torched the Spurs for 33 points — and made 7 of 9 3-pointers — in a 120-108 Clippers victory at the ATT Center in March.

“They’re very different,” said Spurs point guard Tony Parker, who averaged a team-best 21 points in the first round. “They’re more transition, fast breaks, lobs.

“Utah, everything was in the paint. They didn’t have a lot of shooters. The Clippers have some good shooters, so it’s a lot different.”

The Spurs’ strategy in the Utah series was to leave the Jazz shooters alone to clank all but 20 percent of their 3-point tries and use extra defenders to double-team the post.

The Clippers’ abundance of 3-point threats — which includes guard Randy Foye and recently acquired wing Nick Young — might make it more difficult for the Spurs to get away with that approach.

“You can’t help as much as we did against the Jazz,” Ginobili said.

The Spurs, meanwhile, will have to hope an eight-day layoff between series doesn’t rust over the well-oiled machine that has produced 14 consecutive victories.

They will approach the Clippers with a steady diet of Parker pick-and-rolls, lockstep team defense and slick offensive execution that got them this far this fast.

Or, as former Spurs great David Robinson framed the matchup on his Twitter feed Sunday afternoon: “Lob City vs. Fundamental City.”

After an extended, nerve-rattling break, the citizens of Fundamental City are just happy to have another game to play and another opponent to scout.

“The uncertainty is not always good,” Ginobili said. “At this point of the season, you want to know what you’re going to face.”

At long last, at least, the Spurs know.

jmcdonald@express-news.net
Twitter: @JMcDonald_SAEN

SPURS VS. CLIPPERS
(Best-of-seven series)

Game 1: Tuesday, @Spurs, 8:30 p.m., TNT

Game 2: Thursday, @Spurs, 8:30 p.m., ESPN

Game 3: Saturday, @Clippers, 2:30 p.m., ABC

Game 4: Sunday, @Clippers, 9:30 p.m., TNT

* Game 5: May 22, @Spurs, TBA, TNT

* Game 6: May 25, @Clippers, TBA, ESPN

* Game 7: May 27, @Spurs, TBA, TNT

* If necessary