MaNuMaNiAc
05-20-2005, 07:06 PM
Spurs' new go-to guy
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/playoffs2005/dailydime
By Eric Neel, ESPN.com
Duncan got the last shot and the Spurs won the game. Of course he did. Of course they did. He's Tim Duncan (http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?statsId=3173). These are his Spurs.
He shot puts that little bank of his and it's money and the Spurs advance, and this is how it goes, how it's gone for years. It's the San Antonio way. Game over. Series over.
Only this time, if you watched closely, it looked a little different. In fact, it looked a lot different. This time, it looked like TD, the eight-time all-NBA man, the rock upon which all things Spurs are built and stand firm, the face of the franchise, the heart of the matter, was most definitely the second option.
Maybe it's too early to say we're seeing the changing of the Alamo guard, but it sure looked like this was Manu Ginobili's play from the get, Manu's ball and Manu's call. Duncan said so himself after the game, said Pop told him to get to the other side of the lane so Ginobili could work to his strong left hand.
The Sonics knew it, too. They stayed trained on him for every one of those last 13.5 seconds. Potapenko got lost on the play because he thought for sure things were drawn up for Ginobili. He and Daniels and the rest of the gang in green and gold played the moment like they never for a moment thought it might come down to one of the 50 greatest players of all time, the dominant, deadly inside presence wearing number 21, doing them in. They played it like they figured it was the three-year Argentine swingman all the way.
And it was, and it didn't look like a set play, either. It had some major freelance in it. They essentially cleared out for him, put themselves in his able hands, like he was Jordan, like Duncan was his Bill Wennington or his Steve Kerr.
And it was absolutely the right call, because Ginobili's a pure baller. He invents opportunities, creates spaces, reads situations. You don't design things for him, you riff off his improvisations.
Consider the sequence with 1:20 to go, when he does a little crossover back-down thing on Daniels down on the right block, looking for all the world like he's trapped, but somehow never giving up the dribble, and then, on a half-beat, finding Duncan coming down the lane for an and-1.
And remember the last play again: If Seattle sags off him a bit, he's a very good bet to hit a winning jumper fading just a bit to his left, and when they stay up on him, he throws a bullet (through the key, below shoulder-level, mind you) to Duncan for the easy banker.
We think of the Spurs and we think of team efficiency and group execution, of discipline and preparation. They're the height of NBA professionalism, off-court and on, and when they win (which they've done more consistently than any other professional sports franchise these last seven years), this is what we talk about. But if they're going to contend for the title in the next two rounds, their chances may hinge on whether they continue to trust in Manu the way they did in Game 6 of the semis in Seattle.
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/playoffs2005/dailydime
By Eric Neel, ESPN.com
Duncan got the last shot and the Spurs won the game. Of course he did. Of course they did. He's Tim Duncan (http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?statsId=3173). These are his Spurs.
He shot puts that little bank of his and it's money and the Spurs advance, and this is how it goes, how it's gone for years. It's the San Antonio way. Game over. Series over.
Only this time, if you watched closely, it looked a little different. In fact, it looked a lot different. This time, it looked like TD, the eight-time all-NBA man, the rock upon which all things Spurs are built and stand firm, the face of the franchise, the heart of the matter, was most definitely the second option.
Maybe it's too early to say we're seeing the changing of the Alamo guard, but it sure looked like this was Manu Ginobili's play from the get, Manu's ball and Manu's call. Duncan said so himself after the game, said Pop told him to get to the other side of the lane so Ginobili could work to his strong left hand.
The Sonics knew it, too. They stayed trained on him for every one of those last 13.5 seconds. Potapenko got lost on the play because he thought for sure things were drawn up for Ginobili. He and Daniels and the rest of the gang in green and gold played the moment like they never for a moment thought it might come down to one of the 50 greatest players of all time, the dominant, deadly inside presence wearing number 21, doing them in. They played it like they figured it was the three-year Argentine swingman all the way.
And it was, and it didn't look like a set play, either. It had some major freelance in it. They essentially cleared out for him, put themselves in his able hands, like he was Jordan, like Duncan was his Bill Wennington or his Steve Kerr.
And it was absolutely the right call, because Ginobili's a pure baller. He invents opportunities, creates spaces, reads situations. You don't design things for him, you riff off his improvisations.
Consider the sequence with 1:20 to go, when he does a little crossover back-down thing on Daniels down on the right block, looking for all the world like he's trapped, but somehow never giving up the dribble, and then, on a half-beat, finding Duncan coming down the lane for an and-1.
And remember the last play again: If Seattle sags off him a bit, he's a very good bet to hit a winning jumper fading just a bit to his left, and when they stay up on him, he throws a bullet (through the key, below shoulder-level, mind you) to Duncan for the easy banker.
We think of the Spurs and we think of team efficiency and group execution, of discipline and preparation. They're the height of NBA professionalism, off-court and on, and when they win (which they've done more consistently than any other professional sports franchise these last seven years), this is what we talk about. But if they're going to contend for the title in the next two rounds, their chances may hinge on whether they continue to trust in Manu the way they did in Game 6 of the semis in Seattle.