Doctor J
05-22-2008, 10:12 AM
Buck Harvey: Down time - Manu loses what he can't get back
http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/....BKNharvey.spurs.1896faf6.html
LOS ANGELES — Manu Ginobili had time on his game-winning attempt. And he didn’t.
He was able to set, and he was able to release. That’s enough time for a shooter.
But enough time, for him, requires a weekend with a hot tub, as well as some serious down time in a non-smoking king with the shades closed. And this, not his miss Wednesday, is what will haunt the Spurs in this series.
Ginobili is never going to get the time he needs.
This isn’t the only reason the Spurs lost. They blew a 20-point second-half lead, in part, because they mentally burped.
They were up 65-45 in the third quarter with the home crowd beginning to boo. The Lakers had taken four days off, and they added to their rest by taking almost three quarters off Wednesday.
Then Ginobili had a turnover, and Kobe Bryant began to look at the basket. A 14-0 Lakers run ended with a cruel tease of what wouldn’t come later: A Ginobili three.
All of the Spurs had reason to be tired after the previous two days. Playing a tense Game 7 two time zones away from Los Angeles, then sleeping in an airplane makes for a pretty good excuse.
Correction: Tony Parker didn’t actually sleep on the plane. He went outside and slept in the bus.
So Gregg Popovich tried to substitute with that in mind, and some of the Spurs, such as Parker, had no choice but to play big minutes. As the Lakers found their energy, the Spurs were not unlike their charter. They had no lift.
This wasn’t their only problem, and Ginobili pointed that out afterward.
“Even when you are tired, you’ve go to be really smart,” he said. “We always talk about how experienced we are. We didn’t show it, so we are very upset.”
They took too many jumpers, and they made too many bad decisions. Ginobili drove once, and his arcing pass was intercepted. Also, twice in that fourth-quarter lull, Tim Duncan found himself alone and within a leap of the basket, and twice he passed out to Ime Udoka.
Once Udoka had a turnover, the other time Udoka missed.
Gregg Popovich will point out all of this, and he took that slant in his post-game comments. He continued to stick by his comments that the game had nothing to do with their travel problems.
“Everybody’s gone through those sorts of things during the season,” Popovich said.
In truth, no team in memory has ever slept on the tarmac.
Furthermore, the grind of the NBA regular season is also different than this. In February, after all, Popovich might rest Ginobili and take a loss.
Popovich has spent the last few years trying to hold Ginobili to 30 minutes a game. He knows how his engine runs, and he knows, past a certain point, Ginobili fades.
Wednesday he faded into a stat-sheet horror show. He shot 3-of-13, and he ended with more turnovers than assists.
Afterward Ginobili admitted something else.
The chronic ankle pain that has bothered him since Game 1 of the Phoenix series is flamed up again.
“I have a couple of issues,” he said.
But the No. 1 issue is how this gets better. Will the schedule of the Western Conference finals allow Ginobili and the oldest team in the league to recover?
Phil Jackson wonders. After the game he said he thought “fatigue was probably a factor” for the Spurs, and he went further before the game.
“In a series like this, where we are playing every other day, I think it is going to work to our advantage because we’ll have a little reserve to work from.”
Going by this, the Spurs would have been better off losing by 20 instead of once being up by 20. Their starters could have sat on the bench for the fourth quarter, as they often did in New Orleans.
Instead, at the end, Ginobili shot for the win that would have changed this series. And at that moment, aiming to steal home-court advantage, to erase everything that happened the last two days, Ginobili had time.
And he didn’t.
[email protected]
http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/....BKNharvey.spurs.1896faf6.html
LOS ANGELES — Manu Ginobili had time on his game-winning attempt. And he didn’t.
He was able to set, and he was able to release. That’s enough time for a shooter.
But enough time, for him, requires a weekend with a hot tub, as well as some serious down time in a non-smoking king with the shades closed. And this, not his miss Wednesday, is what will haunt the Spurs in this series.
Ginobili is never going to get the time he needs.
This isn’t the only reason the Spurs lost. They blew a 20-point second-half lead, in part, because they mentally burped.
They were up 65-45 in the third quarter with the home crowd beginning to boo. The Lakers had taken four days off, and they added to their rest by taking almost three quarters off Wednesday.
Then Ginobili had a turnover, and Kobe Bryant began to look at the basket. A 14-0 Lakers run ended with a cruel tease of what wouldn’t come later: A Ginobili three.
All of the Spurs had reason to be tired after the previous two days. Playing a tense Game 7 two time zones away from Los Angeles, then sleeping in an airplane makes for a pretty good excuse.
Correction: Tony Parker didn’t actually sleep on the plane. He went outside and slept in the bus.
So Gregg Popovich tried to substitute with that in mind, and some of the Spurs, such as Parker, had no choice but to play big minutes. As the Lakers found their energy, the Spurs were not unlike their charter. They had no lift.
This wasn’t their only problem, and Ginobili pointed that out afterward.
“Even when you are tired, you’ve go to be really smart,” he said. “We always talk about how experienced we are. We didn’t show it, so we are very upset.”
They took too many jumpers, and they made too many bad decisions. Ginobili drove once, and his arcing pass was intercepted. Also, twice in that fourth-quarter lull, Tim Duncan found himself alone and within a leap of the basket, and twice he passed out to Ime Udoka.
Once Udoka had a turnover, the other time Udoka missed.
Gregg Popovich will point out all of this, and he took that slant in his post-game comments. He continued to stick by his comments that the game had nothing to do with their travel problems.
“Everybody’s gone through those sorts of things during the season,” Popovich said.
In truth, no team in memory has ever slept on the tarmac.
Furthermore, the grind of the NBA regular season is also different than this. In February, after all, Popovich might rest Ginobili and take a loss.
Popovich has spent the last few years trying to hold Ginobili to 30 minutes a game. He knows how his engine runs, and he knows, past a certain point, Ginobili fades.
Wednesday he faded into a stat-sheet horror show. He shot 3-of-13, and he ended with more turnovers than assists.
Afterward Ginobili admitted something else.
The chronic ankle pain that has bothered him since Game 1 of the Phoenix series is flamed up again.
“I have a couple of issues,” he said.
But the No. 1 issue is how this gets better. Will the schedule of the Western Conference finals allow Ginobili and the oldest team in the league to recover?
Phil Jackson wonders. After the game he said he thought “fatigue was probably a factor” for the Spurs, and he went further before the game.
“In a series like this, where we are playing every other day, I think it is going to work to our advantage because we’ll have a little reserve to work from.”
Going by this, the Spurs would have been better off losing by 20 instead of once being up by 20. Their starters could have sat on the bench for the fourth quarter, as they often did in New Orleans.
Instead, at the end, Ginobili shot for the win that would have changed this series. And at that moment, aiming to steal home-court advantage, to erase everything that happened the last two days, Ginobili had time.
And he didn’t.
[email protected]