spursupporter
12-09-2005, 01:57 AM
Johnny Ludden
Express-News Staff Writer
With back-to-back games against Boston and Atlanta this weekend and a month-long schedule that has the Spurs shuttling between the SBC Center and the airport, coach Gregg Popovich declared Thursday an off day. No practice. No film session.
The players could use the day as they needed. Which, if the season's previous five weeks were any indication, meant Manu Ginobili may have spent part of it with his right foot in a bucket of ice.
He also could have chosen to soak his left knee in the team's training pool. Or wrap a heating pad around his right thigh. Most likely, he slept.
At times, Ginobili has looked 28 going on 77, wincing as he bends over to pull on his socks, joking that he's getting "old." Then the next game comes and he's back on the floor, running down rebounds, plowing into the lane, scoring 27 points as he did Wednesday against Miami. Sacrificing his body again.
After missing two games with a bone bruise on his right ankle, Ginobili returned Monday in Orlando. In less than three minutes, he drove his left knee into someone else's knee and came up limping.
It is times like that, when Popovich holds his breath and trainer Will Sevening gets ready to leave his seat, Ginobili is asked whether it would be wiser to dial down his aggressiveness. Shouldn't he try harder to avoid contact?
Shouldn't he worry more about preserving his health?
"I can't," Ginobili said. "I don't know how to do it."
El Contusíon, as Brent Barry dubbed his teammate last season, has had an easier time living up to his nickname than his All-Star status. Three days before the start of the season, Ginobili bruised his right quadriceps. Not long after, he hurt his right foot, an injury that continues to trouble him.
Even enjoying a restful summer for the first time in years may have done more harm than good. Accustomed to training with Argentina's national team each offseason, he's had a harder time finding his rhythm.
"When you play as frenetically as he plays, you have to be fresh in the sense of you've been playing," Popovich said. "If you haven't played in a while and try to play at that pace, you're going to make mistakes; your stroke isn't there yet. It took a while for the basketball part of his game to catch up to the speed part of his game."
Ginobili has downplayed the impact of his injuries, saying instead he's just needed longer to regain his sharpness. But while he missed only two games after jamming his right foot against the Los Angeles Lakers last week, he also acknowledges that the injury hasn't healed. Landing in the wrong position is painful.
"Sometimes my ankle hurts, so I can't keep doing crazy things," he said. "But once I start feeling better, I go back to being regular."
For Ginobili, "regular" means relentless. Against the Heat, he repeatedly took the ball to the rim, lofting floaters over the outstretched arm of center Alonzo Mourning.
"I can play better than I did," Ginobili said :elephant , "but I'm happy because I needed a good (game)."
For the season, Ginobili is averaging 15.2 points on 46.2 percent shooting, only a modest drop from a year ago when the Western Conference coaches selected him for the All-Star team.
Popovich has scaled back Ginobili's court time in practice to give him enough time to recover between games. He also has limited his minutes to just under 30 per game, nearly identical to last season.
"But, I don't know how to protect him once he's in a game," Popovich said.
As Ginobili gets older, Popovich thinks he will have to reshape his game similar to how Michael Jordan made himself into a jump shooter. A step in that direction, Popovich said, is that Ginobili's confidence in his 3-point shot has increased over the past two seasons.
"Pace will be important to his game because he can't just be hell-bent for leather every time he touches the ball," Popovich said. "You can't completely take away him forcing himself on the game because he does make some amazing plays. But he'll find a balance."
Express-News Staff Writer
With back-to-back games against Boston and Atlanta this weekend and a month-long schedule that has the Spurs shuttling between the SBC Center and the airport, coach Gregg Popovich declared Thursday an off day. No practice. No film session.
The players could use the day as they needed. Which, if the season's previous five weeks were any indication, meant Manu Ginobili may have spent part of it with his right foot in a bucket of ice.
He also could have chosen to soak his left knee in the team's training pool. Or wrap a heating pad around his right thigh. Most likely, he slept.
At times, Ginobili has looked 28 going on 77, wincing as he bends over to pull on his socks, joking that he's getting "old." Then the next game comes and he's back on the floor, running down rebounds, plowing into the lane, scoring 27 points as he did Wednesday against Miami. Sacrificing his body again.
After missing two games with a bone bruise on his right ankle, Ginobili returned Monday in Orlando. In less than three minutes, he drove his left knee into someone else's knee and came up limping.
It is times like that, when Popovich holds his breath and trainer Will Sevening gets ready to leave his seat, Ginobili is asked whether it would be wiser to dial down his aggressiveness. Shouldn't he try harder to avoid contact?
Shouldn't he worry more about preserving his health?
"I can't," Ginobili said. "I don't know how to do it."
El Contusíon, as Brent Barry dubbed his teammate last season, has had an easier time living up to his nickname than his All-Star status. Three days before the start of the season, Ginobili bruised his right quadriceps. Not long after, he hurt his right foot, an injury that continues to trouble him.
Even enjoying a restful summer for the first time in years may have done more harm than good. Accustomed to training with Argentina's national team each offseason, he's had a harder time finding his rhythm.
"When you play as frenetically as he plays, you have to be fresh in the sense of you've been playing," Popovich said. "If you haven't played in a while and try to play at that pace, you're going to make mistakes; your stroke isn't there yet. It took a while for the basketball part of his game to catch up to the speed part of his game."
Ginobili has downplayed the impact of his injuries, saying instead he's just needed longer to regain his sharpness. But while he missed only two games after jamming his right foot against the Los Angeles Lakers last week, he also acknowledges that the injury hasn't healed. Landing in the wrong position is painful.
"Sometimes my ankle hurts, so I can't keep doing crazy things," he said. "But once I start feeling better, I go back to being regular."
For Ginobili, "regular" means relentless. Against the Heat, he repeatedly took the ball to the rim, lofting floaters over the outstretched arm of center Alonzo Mourning.
"I can play better than I did," Ginobili said :elephant , "but I'm happy because I needed a good (game)."
For the season, Ginobili is averaging 15.2 points on 46.2 percent shooting, only a modest drop from a year ago when the Western Conference coaches selected him for the All-Star team.
Popovich has scaled back Ginobili's court time in practice to give him enough time to recover between games. He also has limited his minutes to just under 30 per game, nearly identical to last season.
"But, I don't know how to protect him once he's in a game," Popovich said.
As Ginobili gets older, Popovich thinks he will have to reshape his game similar to how Michael Jordan made himself into a jump shooter. A step in that direction, Popovich said, is that Ginobili's confidence in his 3-point shot has increased over the past two seasons.
"Pace will be important to his game because he can't just be hell-bent for leather every time he touches the ball," Popovich said. "You can't completely take away him forcing himself on the game because he does make some amazing plays. But he'll find a balance."