Spurs Brazil
05-02-2008, 10:30 PM
http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/basketball/nba/spurs/stories/MYSA050803.09C.BKNspurs.ginobili.c17744dd.html
Spurs' Ginobili still slowed by ankle pain
Web Posted: 05/02/2008 08:35 PM CDT
By Mike Monroe
[email protected]
NEW ORLEANS — Appropriately, the stripes that run up the back of Manu Ginobili’s left calf are bright baby blue, approximating perfectly the blue of the Argentine flag.
They are not there to make a patriotic statement. The hero of Argentina’s 2004 Olympic gold medal triumph in Athens need remind nobody of his love for his native land.
In fact, Ginobili is not sure what purpose the stripes — imagine an aerial view of the Interstate 10 and Loop 410 interchange, with the roadways in blue — serve. One member of the team’s medical/training staff whispered that the blue stripes had been secured from a Haitian voodoo practitioner who promised magical results.
“Who knows?” says the Spurs’ sixth man.
He admits he is worried the pain in his injured left ankle won’t be mitigated by tipoff of Game 1 of the Spurs’ Western Conference semifinal opener against the New Orleans Hornets tonight at New Orleans Arena.
Ginobili’s left ankle has been sore for some time, but he jammed it late in the Spurs’ victory in Game 2 of the first-round series against the Phoenix Suns and has suffered increased swelling and pain.
Though he played the remaining three games, Ginobili’s productivity dipped sharply, game to game. He scored 20 points and grabbed five rebounds in Game 3, but had only 10 points in Game 4. In Game 5, he experienced little but frustration, missing 9 of 11 shots and scoring only eight points in 27 minutes.
If the team’s medical staff asked him to paint his entire body Argentine blue he would submit his body as a live canvas.
“Whatever it takes,” he said after the Spurs’ final practice before departing for The Big Easy. “Whatever they tell me to do, I do it. It’s just that the muscle is tight because of the angle, and (the stripes) are supposed to help keep it relaxed. I don’t know.”
What Ginobili does know is this: The pain in his ankle isn’t yet to the point that his presence on the court, even at less than 100 percent, would hurt the Spurs more than help, as the Suns determined was the case with Grant Hill during the last round.
“If I feel I am hurting the team, of course, definitely, I would tell (Spurs coach Gregg Popovich),” Ginobili said. “In situations like Game 3, 4 and 5, I thought I could still help the team. I knew I was not 100 percent, as healthy as I would want. But it’s not getting worse, and I am helping. That’s why I’m not going to say that (I should not play) at this moment.”
Accustomed to forcing the action on the offensive end, Ginobili understands he must limit his approach to be effective at all.
“I should have last game,” he said. “But with hindsight, it is easy to say it. At the moment I am just going to do and create things and get things done. Of course, if I was at the game now, I would say I should take it easy and be a decoy.
“It limits me. I can’t push off that leg. But I’ve been doing a lot of treatments, and I will keep doing them the last 36 hours before the game, and hopefully, it gets better. It’s not something that is painful all day; just when I push (off). It was hurting before, and I aggravated it in Game 2.”
Willing to do anything to return to full health, Ginobili wonders if Popovich might slip him into his starting lineup to lessen the chance that his ankle might stiffen as he sits the bench for the first five or six minutes of the game.
“It’s possible,” he said. “We didn’t talk about it. Ask the boss. He would know.”
Spurs' Ginobili still slowed by ankle pain
Web Posted: 05/02/2008 08:35 PM CDT
By Mike Monroe
[email protected]
NEW ORLEANS — Appropriately, the stripes that run up the back of Manu Ginobili’s left calf are bright baby blue, approximating perfectly the blue of the Argentine flag.
They are not there to make a patriotic statement. The hero of Argentina’s 2004 Olympic gold medal triumph in Athens need remind nobody of his love for his native land.
In fact, Ginobili is not sure what purpose the stripes — imagine an aerial view of the Interstate 10 and Loop 410 interchange, with the roadways in blue — serve. One member of the team’s medical/training staff whispered that the blue stripes had been secured from a Haitian voodoo practitioner who promised magical results.
“Who knows?” says the Spurs’ sixth man.
He admits he is worried the pain in his injured left ankle won’t be mitigated by tipoff of Game 1 of the Spurs’ Western Conference semifinal opener against the New Orleans Hornets tonight at New Orleans Arena.
Ginobili’s left ankle has been sore for some time, but he jammed it late in the Spurs’ victory in Game 2 of the first-round series against the Phoenix Suns and has suffered increased swelling and pain.
Though he played the remaining three games, Ginobili’s productivity dipped sharply, game to game. He scored 20 points and grabbed five rebounds in Game 3, but had only 10 points in Game 4. In Game 5, he experienced little but frustration, missing 9 of 11 shots and scoring only eight points in 27 minutes.
If the team’s medical staff asked him to paint his entire body Argentine blue he would submit his body as a live canvas.
“Whatever it takes,” he said after the Spurs’ final practice before departing for The Big Easy. “Whatever they tell me to do, I do it. It’s just that the muscle is tight because of the angle, and (the stripes) are supposed to help keep it relaxed. I don’t know.”
What Ginobili does know is this: The pain in his ankle isn’t yet to the point that his presence on the court, even at less than 100 percent, would hurt the Spurs more than help, as the Suns determined was the case with Grant Hill during the last round.
“If I feel I am hurting the team, of course, definitely, I would tell (Spurs coach Gregg Popovich),” Ginobili said. “In situations like Game 3, 4 and 5, I thought I could still help the team. I knew I was not 100 percent, as healthy as I would want. But it’s not getting worse, and I am helping. That’s why I’m not going to say that (I should not play) at this moment.”
Accustomed to forcing the action on the offensive end, Ginobili understands he must limit his approach to be effective at all.
“I should have last game,” he said. “But with hindsight, it is easy to say it. At the moment I am just going to do and create things and get things done. Of course, if I was at the game now, I would say I should take it easy and be a decoy.
“It limits me. I can’t push off that leg. But I’ve been doing a lot of treatments, and I will keep doing them the last 36 hours before the game, and hopefully, it gets better. It’s not something that is painful all day; just when I push (off). It was hurting before, and I aggravated it in Game 2.”
Willing to do anything to return to full health, Ginobili wonders if Popovich might slip him into his starting lineup to lessen the chance that his ankle might stiffen as he sits the bench for the first five or six minutes of the game.
“It’s possible,” he said. “We didn’t talk about it. Ask the boss. He would know.”