Manu(re) one day ... He-Man(u) the next
SAN ANTONIO -- Manu Ginobili wasn't just bad in Los Angeles. He was crap. He was missing drives, he was missing 3-pointers, he was missing ... well, let's be honest. He was missing everything but the letters "r" and "e" at the end of his first name.
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| It's irrelevant if Ginobili's wearing a grimace or a grin; he gets the job done. (AP) |
And then he returned home, and Ginobili wasn't just good Sunday night in San Antonio. He was gold. He was hitting drives, 3-pointers, everything -- scoring 30 points to fertilize San Antonio's 103-84 blowout of the Lakers in Game 3 that put the Spurs right back into the thick of the Western Conference finals.
The home mojo of these 2008 NBA playoffs doesn't explain Ginobili's resurgence, though it might explain why the rest of his teammates played so much better. After horrible losses in the first two games of this series -- blowing a 20-point lead in Game 1, getting blown out by 30 in Game 2 -- the Spurs as a team were fabulous in Game 3. That's all about the home court, where San Antonio has won 13 straight playoff games dating to the 2007 conference semifinals. This postseason, San Antonio is averaging 86.6 points on the road, and 103.2 ppg at the AT&T Center.
San Antonio was superb at home? No big shock there.
Ginobili was a superstar? That was a surprise. Even to his teammates.
"We saw a turnaround coming," said Spurs center Tim Duncan. "But to say we saw Manu coming out and shooting like that ... I can't say that."
It wasn't a question of talent. Ginobili was the NBA's 2008 Sixth Man of the Year after averaging 19.5 points, 4.8 rebounds and 4.5 assists. But he has been slowed in recent games by a sore ankle, and in the first two games of this series he was crappy -- 8.5 ppg, 3.0 rpg, 2.5 apg. He shot 23.8 percent from the floor. He was 2-for-10 on 3-pointers.
Ginobili was so bad in Game 1, so un-Ginobili, that Spurs coach Gregg Popovich considered holding him out for Game 2 to let the ankle heal. Popovich ended up playing him for 23 ineffective minutes before sitting him for the fourth quarter of the 101-71 loss.
That 12-minute respite doesn't explain Sunday night. Nothing does, frankly. Ginobili couldn't move very well in Los Angeles, and he couldn't shoot at all -- not even in warm-ups. Moments before the pregame introductions for Game 2, Ginobili didn't want to leave the floor until he had hit one final 3-pointer from the corner. So he shot one. And another. And another. He missed five in a row, then gave up.
On Sunday he made five 3-pointers in the first half -- out of seven tries -- and he made them from all sorts of ridiculous situations. There was the pull-up in transition over 6-foot-10 Vladimir Radmanovic. There were two straight 3's against Sasha Vujacic. And then with 59 seconds left in the half there was the step-back, falling away 3-pointer he heaved over Vujacic that had Vujacic shaking his head. Nobody hits that shot in warm-ups, much less the Western Conference finals.
"Impossible shots," said Lakers coach Phil Jackson.
Not so fast, Mr. Jackson.
