MaNuMaNiAc
06-10-2005, 04:31 AM
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/playoffs2005/columns/story?columnist=stein_marc&id=2081844
SAN ANTONIO – There you go. Now you know.
Now you know why a certain scribe dares to keep saying that Tim Duncan (http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?statsId=3173) is heading for No. 2 on the list of Most Dependable Spurs.
Now all of neutral America knows, after a wait of just three quarters, that there will be something pretty to savor in these NBA Finals, even for those without a rooting interest.
Even in the most ungodly of defensive struggles.
Manu Ginobili (http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?statsId=3380) made sure there would be some pretty pictures Thursday night, sparking San Antonio to an 84-69 triumph in the opener and sparing the very first game of Spurs vs. Pistons from some widespread scorn on Friday's newspages and airwaves.
Game 1 was about 10 times more stifling than anyone anticipated – or feared – until Ginobili started running through his repertoire in the final period. Both teams looked like long shots to reach the mystical Seventy Point Barrier, at 55-51 entering the fourth, when the crafty lefty, at last, found a more measured path to the rim against the long limbs of Tayshaun Prince (http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?statsId=3621) and the packed paint behind him.
There was Ginobili snaking through the paint for a couple of rolling lefty bankers in a row.
There was Ginobili going right to switch things up and flipping the ball in with his off-hand for a hanging and-one.
There was Ginobili finally getting loose for a dunk and sinking a long triple, too, to finish with 15 points in the final period. The same Ginobili who was hounded into a one-basket, three-turnover opening half.
"Offensively, it was Manu Ginobili," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said in tribute. "He was something else." Ginobili and his flair is the something extra that ensures these Finals won't just be six or seven games of Uglyball, no matter how stingy both teams get. How stingy, you ask? The defensive mentality was so pervasive on this night that Glenn Robinson (http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?statsId=2624) – a veteran of zero All-NBA Defensive teams – unexpectedly logged six minutes off the Spurs' bench ... and rejected three shots, two of them mighty swats.
Rasheed Wallace blocked six shots of his own, living up to his reputation for making Duncan work harder than usual until foul trouble intervened. Bruce Bowen (http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?statsId=3167) chased Richard Hamilton (http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?statsId=3330) through every screen and could claim a hand in holding Rip to 14 points and/or hounding him into 14 misses. It was intense defensive activity that enabled Detroit to launch the evening by seizing a 17-4 lead, and it was San Antonio's retaliatory pressing and trapping that allowed the Spurs to crucially slice that deficit to 20-17 at quarter's end.
"They defended us," said Pistons coach Larry Brown, "better than any team all year."
Yet even the purists would have to concede that these teams are asking a lot for D this relentless to captivate a nation. You're expecting a lot to expect neutrals to revel in an atmosphere that turns Big Dog into a dogged shot-blocker.
Then, mercifully, Ginobili happened. He never surrendered his will to drive, refusing to give in and start hoisting jumpers, but he had to be smarter in the second half after Detroit stoned him in the first two quarters.
So he was a little more patient when he probed after halftime. The Spurs' pick-and-rolls started clicking better, too. When Duncan tacked on a couple jumpers to Ginobili's fourth-quarter flurry, Detroit was suddenly looking at a 16-point deficit, nose-diving after a close charge/block call that went against Ben Wallace (http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?statsId=3149) on a Manu drive.
"I struggled in the first quarter, especially at the beginning," Ginobili said. "I don't know if I was nervous or rusty or whatever, but I didn't play well.
"I realized when I went back to the bench that I was not seeing what was going on – too much thinking about [trying to] finish. ... So I was very upset at halftime. I tried to calm down, play at a little slower pace, and things started to go better."
Yeah. You could say that.
You could say that the Pistons wasted a major opportunity by failing to build on their stunning start, but you have to counter with this: Ginobili simply outfoxed them at the end, good for 22 points in the second half.
You could say that Ginobili would never be able to wheel and deal the way he does if Duncan wasn't opening up the floor by demanding so much attention, and you would be right. Yet it's instructive to note that Popovich, who will always list Duncan as his No. 1 for dependability, couldn't stop heaping praise on Ginobili after this display.
"Timmy had 24 points and 17 rebounds and he had blocks and he played some great D tonight ... and I just ignore him," Popovich said. "He gets the same treatment David Robinson (http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?statsId=288) got; you take it for granted every night.
"But trust me: Timmy appreciates Tony [Parker] and Manu when they do what they do, and tonight it was Manu. ... With the way the rules are now [limiting defensive contact on the perimeter], every team is looking for attack guys. Every team has guys that are catching it out of double teams and really taking it to the hole and either doing it themselves or kicking it to somebody else. "Timmy, he's the beginning of it. [But] he doesn't have to be the end all the time now. That's the important part."
SAN ANTONIO – There you go. Now you know.
Now you know why a certain scribe dares to keep saying that Tim Duncan (http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?statsId=3173) is heading for No. 2 on the list of Most Dependable Spurs.
Now all of neutral America knows, after a wait of just three quarters, that there will be something pretty to savor in these NBA Finals, even for those without a rooting interest.
Even in the most ungodly of defensive struggles.
Manu Ginobili (http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?statsId=3380) made sure there would be some pretty pictures Thursday night, sparking San Antonio to an 84-69 triumph in the opener and sparing the very first game of Spurs vs. Pistons from some widespread scorn on Friday's newspages and airwaves.
Game 1 was about 10 times more stifling than anyone anticipated – or feared – until Ginobili started running through his repertoire in the final period. Both teams looked like long shots to reach the mystical Seventy Point Barrier, at 55-51 entering the fourth, when the crafty lefty, at last, found a more measured path to the rim against the long limbs of Tayshaun Prince (http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?statsId=3621) and the packed paint behind him.
There was Ginobili snaking through the paint for a couple of rolling lefty bankers in a row.
There was Ginobili going right to switch things up and flipping the ball in with his off-hand for a hanging and-one.
There was Ginobili finally getting loose for a dunk and sinking a long triple, too, to finish with 15 points in the final period. The same Ginobili who was hounded into a one-basket, three-turnover opening half.
"Offensively, it was Manu Ginobili," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said in tribute. "He was something else." Ginobili and his flair is the something extra that ensures these Finals won't just be six or seven games of Uglyball, no matter how stingy both teams get. How stingy, you ask? The defensive mentality was so pervasive on this night that Glenn Robinson (http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?statsId=2624) – a veteran of zero All-NBA Defensive teams – unexpectedly logged six minutes off the Spurs' bench ... and rejected three shots, two of them mighty swats.
Rasheed Wallace blocked six shots of his own, living up to his reputation for making Duncan work harder than usual until foul trouble intervened. Bruce Bowen (http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?statsId=3167) chased Richard Hamilton (http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?statsId=3330) through every screen and could claim a hand in holding Rip to 14 points and/or hounding him into 14 misses. It was intense defensive activity that enabled Detroit to launch the evening by seizing a 17-4 lead, and it was San Antonio's retaliatory pressing and trapping that allowed the Spurs to crucially slice that deficit to 20-17 at quarter's end.
"They defended us," said Pistons coach Larry Brown, "better than any team all year."
Yet even the purists would have to concede that these teams are asking a lot for D this relentless to captivate a nation. You're expecting a lot to expect neutrals to revel in an atmosphere that turns Big Dog into a dogged shot-blocker.
Then, mercifully, Ginobili happened. He never surrendered his will to drive, refusing to give in and start hoisting jumpers, but he had to be smarter in the second half after Detroit stoned him in the first two quarters.
So he was a little more patient when he probed after halftime. The Spurs' pick-and-rolls started clicking better, too. When Duncan tacked on a couple jumpers to Ginobili's fourth-quarter flurry, Detroit was suddenly looking at a 16-point deficit, nose-diving after a close charge/block call that went against Ben Wallace (http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?statsId=3149) on a Manu drive.
"I struggled in the first quarter, especially at the beginning," Ginobili said. "I don't know if I was nervous or rusty or whatever, but I didn't play well.
"I realized when I went back to the bench that I was not seeing what was going on – too much thinking about [trying to] finish. ... So I was very upset at halftime. I tried to calm down, play at a little slower pace, and things started to go better."
Yeah. You could say that.
You could say that the Pistons wasted a major opportunity by failing to build on their stunning start, but you have to counter with this: Ginobili simply outfoxed them at the end, good for 22 points in the second half.
You could say that Ginobili would never be able to wheel and deal the way he does if Duncan wasn't opening up the floor by demanding so much attention, and you would be right. Yet it's instructive to note that Popovich, who will always list Duncan as his No. 1 for dependability, couldn't stop heaping praise on Ginobili after this display.
"Timmy had 24 points and 17 rebounds and he had blocks and he played some great D tonight ... and I just ignore him," Popovich said. "He gets the same treatment David Robinson (http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?statsId=288) got; you take it for granted every night.
"But trust me: Timmy appreciates Tony [Parker] and Manu when they do what they do, and tonight it was Manu. ... With the way the rules are now [limiting defensive contact on the perimeter], every team is looking for attack guys. Every team has guys that are catching it out of double teams and really taking it to the hole and either doing it themselves or kicking it to somebody else. "Timmy, he's the beginning of it. [But] he doesn't have to be the end all the time now. That's the important part."