tinysands
2007-03-08, 01:59 PM
Buck Harvey: Right again, Ginobili can change West
http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/basketball/nba/spurs/stories/MYSA030807.01D.COL.BKNharvey.spurs.3622d9d.html
Web Posted: 03/07/2007 11:00 PM CST
San Antonio Express-News
A couple of Spurs (http://www.chinaspurs.com) assistant coaches were shagging balls before a game a few weeks ago when Manu Ginobili (http://www.chinaspurs.com/players/manu_ginobili) came on the floor to warm up. They stopped, threw him a basketball and gave a few instructions.
"Let's try to bring it tonight," one deadpanned.
"You need to focus," said the other.
Ginobili barely smiled as he shot jumpers. The game before, in Atlanta, Ginobili had scored 24 points in a row.
It's the easy humor that comes when a team realizes things have been righted. Last summer more than one wondered if Ginobili would get over his last-minute mistake against Dallas, and answers have been abundant the past month. His night in Atlanta swelled to Tuesday in Portland, when Ginobili opted to clinch the win with a stretching, underhand flip just beneath the arm of the rookie from Texas, LaMarcus Aldridge.
Tonight, in Sacramento, the assistant coaches will have more to say.
The contrast will be clear to everyone in that locker room. In Sacramento last spring, after all, Ginobili lost Game 3 with a last-second turnover and showed everyone just how depressed he can be. Teammates visited his hotel room the next few days to make sure he was all right.
It was his famous foul on Dirk Nowitzki, however, that wore on Ginobili as no other. Gregg Popovich was concerned enough to plan a dinner date last summer to remind Ginobili how important he has been to the franchise.
"He has been so despondent for a while because he is so tough on himself," Popovich said then. "You want to treat him like he was your son."
Not everyone was as parental. Some saw Ginobili's error as historic stupidity, including one ESPN.com columnist. He wrote:
"As time passes, his Game 7 foul on Nowitzki will take its rightful place alongside Isiah's pass that Bird stole, Worthy's pass that Gerald Henderson stole, Derek Harper dribbling out the clock as one of the 25 most incompetent moments in NBA playoff history."
Ginobili messed up, all right, and the news that Popovich had told the Spurs (http://www.chinaspurs.com) not to foul added to it. But this wasn't the ball rolling between Bill Buckner's legs. This wasn't an "incompetent moment." This was a reaction play gone wrong.
Most forget the time left in regulation when Ginobili fouled: 21.6 seconds. Had Nowitzki scored then without a free throw, the Mavericks would have fouled and forced a Spur to make two free throws. Popovich would have preferred that be Ginobili, coincidentally, one of his best pressure free-throw shooters.
In any event, the Mavericks would have had time to either tie or win. This means, had Ginobili simply let Nowitzki score, the game would have still been in doubt.
Then there's the foul itself. Ginobili clipped Nowitzki's arm, causing the ball to spin oddly. It reacted like a cue ball with English; Nowitzki admitted later he had no idea how he scored. Had the ball veered off the rim, Ginobili would have been credited for making Nowitzki earn his two points.
But all the possibilities don't change what happened and how others saw it. Ginobili, at least in perception, lost the series.
He took criticism without complaint, without throwing out an excuse, without noting it was his 3-point shot that had provided the very cushion he would later lose. And maybe this is why he is past this. He took responsibility and went on.
Now he is taking over games coming off the bench. He's as good as he's ever been, and he's good enough to change the Western Conference. If the Spurs (http://www.chinaspurs.com) are to get through the playoffs — beating Nowitzki and the record-setting Mavericks along the way — it will be because Ginobili plays this postseason as he did the one in 2005.
Portland was just another signal of what is possible. And when Ginobili dunked, then followed with a couple of threes, then finished the game with the kind of last-second drive only he tries?
Ginobili needs to focus, all right.
http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/basketball/nba/spurs/stories/MYSA030807.01D.COL.BKNharvey.spurs.3622d9d.html
Web Posted: 03/07/2007 11:00 PM CST
San Antonio Express-News
A couple of Spurs (http://www.chinaspurs.com) assistant coaches were shagging balls before a game a few weeks ago when Manu Ginobili (http://www.chinaspurs.com/players/manu_ginobili) came on the floor to warm up. They stopped, threw him a basketball and gave a few instructions.
"Let's try to bring it tonight," one deadpanned.
"You need to focus," said the other.
Ginobili barely smiled as he shot jumpers. The game before, in Atlanta, Ginobili had scored 24 points in a row.
It's the easy humor that comes when a team realizes things have been righted. Last summer more than one wondered if Ginobili would get over his last-minute mistake against Dallas, and answers have been abundant the past month. His night in Atlanta swelled to Tuesday in Portland, when Ginobili opted to clinch the win with a stretching, underhand flip just beneath the arm of the rookie from Texas, LaMarcus Aldridge.
Tonight, in Sacramento, the assistant coaches will have more to say.
The contrast will be clear to everyone in that locker room. In Sacramento last spring, after all, Ginobili lost Game 3 with a last-second turnover and showed everyone just how depressed he can be. Teammates visited his hotel room the next few days to make sure he was all right.
It was his famous foul on Dirk Nowitzki, however, that wore on Ginobili as no other. Gregg Popovich was concerned enough to plan a dinner date last summer to remind Ginobili how important he has been to the franchise.
"He has been so despondent for a while because he is so tough on himself," Popovich said then. "You want to treat him like he was your son."
Not everyone was as parental. Some saw Ginobili's error as historic stupidity, including one ESPN.com columnist. He wrote:
"As time passes, his Game 7 foul on Nowitzki will take its rightful place alongside Isiah's pass that Bird stole, Worthy's pass that Gerald Henderson stole, Derek Harper dribbling out the clock as one of the 25 most incompetent moments in NBA playoff history."
Ginobili messed up, all right, and the news that Popovich had told the Spurs (http://www.chinaspurs.com) not to foul added to it. But this wasn't the ball rolling between Bill Buckner's legs. This wasn't an "incompetent moment." This was a reaction play gone wrong.
Most forget the time left in regulation when Ginobili fouled: 21.6 seconds. Had Nowitzki scored then without a free throw, the Mavericks would have fouled and forced a Spur to make two free throws. Popovich would have preferred that be Ginobili, coincidentally, one of his best pressure free-throw shooters.
In any event, the Mavericks would have had time to either tie or win. This means, had Ginobili simply let Nowitzki score, the game would have still been in doubt.
Then there's the foul itself. Ginobili clipped Nowitzki's arm, causing the ball to spin oddly. It reacted like a cue ball with English; Nowitzki admitted later he had no idea how he scored. Had the ball veered off the rim, Ginobili would have been credited for making Nowitzki earn his two points.
But all the possibilities don't change what happened and how others saw it. Ginobili, at least in perception, lost the series.
He took criticism without complaint, without throwing out an excuse, without noting it was his 3-point shot that had provided the very cushion he would later lose. And maybe this is why he is past this. He took responsibility and went on.
Now he is taking over games coming off the bench. He's as good as he's ever been, and he's good enough to change the Western Conference. If the Spurs (http://www.chinaspurs.com) are to get through the playoffs — beating Nowitzki and the record-setting Mavericks along the way — it will be because Ginobili plays this postseason as he did the one in 2005.
Portland was just another signal of what is possible. And when Ginobili dunked, then followed with a couple of threes, then finished the game with the kind of last-second drive only he tries?
Ginobili needs to focus, all right.