duncan228
01-25-2009, 11:51 PM
Manu holds the answer to ‘how' (http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/spurs/Manu_holds_the_answer_to_how.html)
Buck Harvey
LOS ANGELES — Manu Ginobili is back, all right.
Back to last spring.
He walked out of the Staples Center on Sunday with the kind of single-digit game he had a year ago here in the Western Conference finals. But he also wasn't all the way back. This time he didn't have a limp or an excuse.
This time he was just another guy caught in the wave of the new-age Showtime. This time he wasn't being asked about his four turnovers, or if he can become what he once was, but about the Lakers.
Are they better than any team the Spurs have beaten on their way to championships?
Ginobili shrugged nicely. This is what he does when he's asked something he doesn't agree with.
Maybe, he said.
Make no mistake. The Lakers look Magic-Kareem great, especially when Jack Nicholson is as close to them at the 3-point line as the Spurs' defenders are. Kobe Bryant swished an open three to open the second half, then Derek Fisher followed with another.
Gregg Popovich called time and didn't huddle with his assistants first, because it wasn't necessary. Popovich knew exactly what he had to say to his players.
“The game was over at that point,” Popovich said afterward, and that is telling of the Spurs' margin of error against the Lakers. If the Spurs suffer through a few mental blips a minute into the second half, then all hope is lost?
Popovich called the Lakers “young, athletic, long and deep, inside game, outside game,” and he could have kept going. The Lakers seemingly have two of everything, and they have one Kobe. Sunday, for the first time all season, they had everyone healthy.
As for the Spurs' tight win against the Lakers in San Antonio: Think Jordan Farmar and his 14 points in 17 minutes would have changed things 10 days ago?
The Lakers went home after that loss and fell to Orlando, too, suggesting again they can be beaten. But they also have the league's best winning percentage, along with a sense they are still coming together.
Andrew Bynum had a 42-point game last week, for example. Yet his muscle against Tim Duncan, along with four blocks, might have been more impressive.
Add it up, and the Lakers look stronger than any time since early in the century, when they twice beat the Spurs in the playoffs. The difference between the two Lakers teams is three titles, as well as style.
“I don't know if we were as versatile as we are now,” Fisher said. “We can play a lot of different lineups with a lot of different guys in different spots ... it's fun to be a part of it.”
This is fun for them, too: The Spurs, currently the second-best in the West, are about as close to the Lakers in the standings as they are to being out of the playoffs entirely.
Still, the Spurs have a few things going for them, and one is the relative insignificance of a January game. Another is their traditional timing, since they usually come together during the rodeo road trip.
Another could be the Lakers themselves. Their championship teams of this decade were as smart as they were talented, and they meshed as the best Spurs teams did. This group is more a collection of athletes who do different things.
Just as they cracked against the Celtics a year ago, could they again?
But none of it matters if Ginobili continues to leave the Staples Center the same way. He scored 27 against the Lakers in San Antonio, and he continues to show signs that he's back. But if this is the status of today's Ginobili, an up-and-down sub, then that won't be enough.
This goes back to 2005. Then the Spurs met the best team they played on their way to any of their championships, Detroit. The Pistons were composed, talented and in sync.
“How did we ever beat them?” Popovich said afterward.
How? Ginobili became what he had been for the Argentina national team — someone with the magic and toughness to counter anything thrown at him.
Ginobili will have to be back, to that level, if the Spurs are to beat the Lakers.
Buck Harvey
LOS ANGELES — Manu Ginobili is back, all right.
Back to last spring.
He walked out of the Staples Center on Sunday with the kind of single-digit game he had a year ago here in the Western Conference finals. But he also wasn't all the way back. This time he didn't have a limp or an excuse.
This time he was just another guy caught in the wave of the new-age Showtime. This time he wasn't being asked about his four turnovers, or if he can become what he once was, but about the Lakers.
Are they better than any team the Spurs have beaten on their way to championships?
Ginobili shrugged nicely. This is what he does when he's asked something he doesn't agree with.
Maybe, he said.
Make no mistake. The Lakers look Magic-Kareem great, especially when Jack Nicholson is as close to them at the 3-point line as the Spurs' defenders are. Kobe Bryant swished an open three to open the second half, then Derek Fisher followed with another.
Gregg Popovich called time and didn't huddle with his assistants first, because it wasn't necessary. Popovich knew exactly what he had to say to his players.
“The game was over at that point,” Popovich said afterward, and that is telling of the Spurs' margin of error against the Lakers. If the Spurs suffer through a few mental blips a minute into the second half, then all hope is lost?
Popovich called the Lakers “young, athletic, long and deep, inside game, outside game,” and he could have kept going. The Lakers seemingly have two of everything, and they have one Kobe. Sunday, for the first time all season, they had everyone healthy.
As for the Spurs' tight win against the Lakers in San Antonio: Think Jordan Farmar and his 14 points in 17 minutes would have changed things 10 days ago?
The Lakers went home after that loss and fell to Orlando, too, suggesting again they can be beaten. But they also have the league's best winning percentage, along with a sense they are still coming together.
Andrew Bynum had a 42-point game last week, for example. Yet his muscle against Tim Duncan, along with four blocks, might have been more impressive.
Add it up, and the Lakers look stronger than any time since early in the century, when they twice beat the Spurs in the playoffs. The difference between the two Lakers teams is three titles, as well as style.
“I don't know if we were as versatile as we are now,” Fisher said. “We can play a lot of different lineups with a lot of different guys in different spots ... it's fun to be a part of it.”
This is fun for them, too: The Spurs, currently the second-best in the West, are about as close to the Lakers in the standings as they are to being out of the playoffs entirely.
Still, the Spurs have a few things going for them, and one is the relative insignificance of a January game. Another is their traditional timing, since they usually come together during the rodeo road trip.
Another could be the Lakers themselves. Their championship teams of this decade were as smart as they were talented, and they meshed as the best Spurs teams did. This group is more a collection of athletes who do different things.
Just as they cracked against the Celtics a year ago, could they again?
But none of it matters if Ginobili continues to leave the Staples Center the same way. He scored 27 against the Lakers in San Antonio, and he continues to show signs that he's back. But if this is the status of today's Ginobili, an up-and-down sub, then that won't be enough.
This goes back to 2005. Then the Spurs met the best team they played on their way to any of their championships, Detroit. The Pistons were composed, talented and in sync.
“How did we ever beat them?” Popovich said afterward.
How? Ginobili became what he had been for the Argentina national team — someone with the magic and toughness to counter anything thrown at him.
Ginobili will have to be back, to that level, if the Spurs are to beat the Lakers.