Tag: Manu Ginobili

Last stand for Spurs’ Duncan?

By Jeff McDonald
jmcdonald@express-news.net

Maybe it’s the creak in his knees, warning him that the end is near. Maybe it’s the cold hand of Father Time on his back, nudging him toward the door.

Maybe Tim Duncan believes what the rest of the NBA seems to, that the Spurs’ title window is closing, if it hasn’t been slammed shut and padlocked already. There is a prevailing notion the playoff run that begins today against Memphis might be the venerable Spurs captain’s last good chance to pursue a fifth championship ring.

And maybe it is.

“Until the next one,” Duncan said. “Every year, we’re given our last chance. We’ll take this one as it is.”

On the precipice of another playoff, with the Spurs owning a No. 1 seed so unexpected their head coach never saw it coming, Duncan doesn’t deny a heightened sense of urgency.

In NBA years, the two-time MVP is straddling a line between older and old. He will turn 35 before the end of the first round, with a contract that might be wiped out by the league’s looming labor impasse.

If retirement isn’t imminent, Duncan can see the Barcalounger from here.

“Every game, every playoff run, everything is special right now,” Duncan said. “I’m not taking anything for granted.”

If these playoffs represent Duncan’s final last chance, it is a good one.

For the first time since 2006, the Spurs enter as the Western Conference’s top seed, ahead of the two-time defending champion L.A. Lakers, by virtue of a 61-21 record that was the second-best of Duncan’s 14 seasons.

It is something few could have imagined a year ago, when the Spurs struggled to a seventh-place finish they did well to parlay into a second-round playoff exit.

“I don’t think there’s anybody, in or out of the league, that thought this team would be the first seed in the West,” coach Gregg Popovich said.

As they head into Game 1 against the eighth-seeded Grizzlies at the ATT Center, the Spurs’ prime motivation is simply to not muck up what they’ve already earned.

Already, they have been reminded how tenuous a successful playoff run can be, with guard Manu Ginobili listed as doubtful for Game 1 with a sprained right elbow.

“Our window is closing,” said Tony Parker, the 10th-year point guard and Duncan’s sidekick for three titles. “I really feel like it’s our last chance to really do something.”

Before the season, with so much in doubt and a seventh-place roster a year older, Popovich for the first time distilled his goals to their most basic.

“We really were just hoping to make the playoffs,” Popovich said.

Now the Spurs can, with a straight face, talk about making a run for their first championship since 2007.

As they have for 12 postseasons, much of the Spurs’ hopes rest with Duncan, the Finals MVP in 1999, 2003 and 2005.

Duncan was at times a forgotten man during the regular season — as forgotten as a future first-ballot Hall of Famer can be — as Popovich capped his minutes to career lows. Duncan’s scoring (13.4 points per game) and rebounding (8.9 per game) dipped in tandem.

The object was to keep mileage off Duncan’s rising odometer, to keep him fresh for the playoffs. Now that they are here, Duncan’s teammates expect the All-Star to again be at the center of their game plan.

“Every time we play in the playoffs, Timmy’s going to be very aggressive,” Parker said. “You can see Pop call more plays for him. We’re definitely going to use him more.”

Duncan arrived here nearly 14 years ago, by lucky bounce of a lottery ball, to a small-market city he had never before considered. With the raising of four championship banners, he transformed one of the NBA’s hardest-luck outposts into an unexpected keeper of the basketball flame.

Beyond these playoffs, there is no telling what Duncan’s basketball future holds. If next season is completely erased by lockout, Duncan will stand to lose $21.2 million due the final year of his contract, more than any player in the league.

He will also stand to lose time, and that’s one commodity an NBA player in his mid-30s cannot replace.

So if this is it, if this playoff run is indeed Duncan’s final last stand, it is only fitting he makes it with the ball in his hands.

“We’ve been blessed,” Duncan said. “We’ve had a good run. Hopefully, we can make another one.”

Personals have Popovich in foul mood

Nobody could blame Spurs coach Gregg Popovich for being in a foul mood after he watched the Grizzlies manhandle his team in the second half of Monday’s Game 4 at FedEx Forum in Memphis.

In fact, fouls committed by the Spurs in the pivotal first four minutes of the third quarter seemed to bother Popovich as much, or more, than any aspect of a 104-86 loss that has the Spurs on the brink of elimination from the playoffs.

The Spurs committed three turnovers during the Grizzlies’ game-turning 14-0 run to start the third, but Popovich was more surprised by his team’s inability to defend without fouling.

Rookie center Tiago Splitter started the Grizzlies’ parade to the foul line when he committed a shooting foul against Marc Gasol just 42 seconds into the period. He committed a second shooting foul, on guard Mike Conley, 73 seconds later. In between, Richard Jefferson and Manu Ginobili picked up personals, so George Hill’s foul on Tony Allen with 9:19 remaining in the quarter put the Grizzlies in the bonus for the remainder of the period.

By quarter’s end, Memphis had shot 12 free throws and made 10.

“I would never expect that we would play that badly to start the third quarter in a game that we were playing pretty well in overall and actually leading and have an opportunity to play those first minutes just in a solid manner,” Popovich said.

“So sure, I was surprised, more about the fouls than the turnovers. We’ve been capable of turnovers before, but we’ve been a great team all year as far as not fouling, so that was really out of character.”

Ginobili, whose only personal of the game came in the third-period foul fest, had no good explanation for the spate of fouls.

“Usually they are the team that fouls a lot and sends us to the line early,” he said. “In that third quarter, in three minutes they were in bonus and we kept fouling in bad situations. So we gave them the ball and said, ‘OK, you score from the line.’ And offensively, we were just dry. Those two things compounded for a horrible third quarter.”

HOLLINS HOLLERS: The inspiration for the Grizzlies’ third-quarter surge apparently came from head coach Lionel Hollins.

Players described an irate head coach challenging them to play with more intensity and physicality from the outset of the second half.

“He ripped us,” Grizzlies guard O.J. Mayo told reporters.

Leading scorer Zach Randolph verified Mayo’s account, saying Hollins “definitely had some choice words.”

Hollins enjoyed the response he got.

“The second half,” he said, “was just incredible to watch. It was an incredible performance in the third and fourth quarters. From the second quarter on, our defense just kept getting better and better and more aggressive.”

GRIZZLIES WARY: The Grizzlies gathered as a team at center court after Monday’s victory to steel their resolve for tonight’s Game 5 at the ATT Center.

“We understand that we have not won anything yet,” Gasol said. “It was a good game. We know how loud their place can get, and we need to be ready.”

Manu doubtful for playoff opener

Their first-round playoff opponent finally decided, Spurs coaches went to work Thursday piecing together the beginnings of a game plan for the Memphis Grizzlies.

The team’s most pressing concern, however, was not something that could be solved by any combination Xs and Os, only ice and rest.

An MRI exam revealed guard Manu Ginobili has a sprained right elbow, and the Spurs are preparing to open the playoffs without him.

Ginobili is officially listed as doubtful for Game 1 on Sunday at the ATT Center, leaving his teammates to seize onto the semantics that “doubtful” does not mean “out.”

“Hopefully he can be ready to go once the playoffs start,” Tim Duncan said. “You cross your fingers and hope for that.”

Ginobili was injured in the first quarter of the Spurs’ 106-103 season-ending loss at Phoenix on Wednesday, when he collided awkwardly with Suns forward Grant Hill while cutting off a Duncan screen.

His injury throws a wild card into the matchup between the top-seeded Spurs (61-21) and eighth-seeded Grizzlies (46-36).

Throughout NBA postseason history, No. 1 seed has advanced in 51 of 54 first-round series. Since 2003, when the first-round format switched to a best-of-seven series, the No. 8 seed has moved on to the second round just once — in 2007, when Golden State upset Dallas.

With Ginobili and his 17.4 points per game possibly out for at least Game 1, and with Memphis a more rugged draw than the garden-variety eight seed, the Spurs are still favorites, but vulnerable.

“It’s going to be a tough, physical series,” Spurs guard Tony Parker said. “We’ll be ready.”

Even before a bum elbow threatened to rob the Spurs of their second-leading scorer, there were signs Memphis wanted this matchup. Eschewing a chance to elevate to the No. 7 seed, Grizzlies coach Lionel Hollins rested starters — including bruising star forward Zach Randolph — in each of the final two games of the regular season.

At least one prominent Spurs player noticed.

“Obviously, they’ve chosen their matchup,” Duncan said.

There are reasons for Memphis to bullseye the Spurs. The Grizzlies split four games against them during the regular season, losing one in overtime. In addition, Randolph has been a load for the Spurs to handle, averaging 23 points and 14.8 rebounds against them this season.

In hindsight, perhaps Hollins made the right call simply in keeping his most important players out of harm’s way.

Ginobili’s injury might have opened the door for the Grizzlies to make franchise history. Memphis is 0-12 all-time in playoffs, having been swept in all three of its previous appearances — including in 2004 by the Spurs.

After Wednesday’s game in Phoenix, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich defended his use of Ginobili and other regulars in a fairly meaningless finale, saying he wanted to keep his starters in fighting shape heading toward the playoffs.

“They needed to get a good run, and they did, so they can keep a rhythm,” Popovich said.

Duncan, too, refused to play Monday morning quarterback.

“You can’t predict anything, and there’s no reason to second guess,” he said. “I don’t think any one of us is going to do that.”

All the Spurs can do now is look to the future, which in the short term means the prospect of opening the playoffs without Ginobili.

The spacious nature of the playoff schedule could aid his recovery. With Game 2 not until Wednesday, Ginobili could ice his elbow for a full week and miss just one game.

For now, the Spurs just need Ginobili to get well. The Xs and Os, much like their chances for advancement, look better with him than without him.

“If he isn’t able to play in the playoffs, it’s going to be devastating for us,” Antonio McDyess said. “We definitely don’t want to see that happen.”