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05-31-2008, 01:14 AM
Buck Harvey: Half Manu means no chance: The snapshot
http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/columnists/bharvey/stories/MYSA053008.1D.COL.BKNharvey.spurs.41c72e64.html
Web Posted: 05/30/2008 12:50 AM CDT
San Antonio Express-News
LOS ANGELES — Cue up dramatic music. Put everything in slow motion. Then roll the collage.
The Tim Duncan three against the Suns would start off. A sweaty, bald-headed ref would follow.
A picture of the Ring of Fire would be required from New Orleans, as would an image to reflect how hot Tony Parker was in Phoenix in Game 3. They would have to find something to tell about a Game 7 win on the road, as well as some video from the sleep-over on the tarmac.
Yes, the no-call would not be forgotten.
But the conclusive picture, contrasted against the endless power and skill of Kobe Bryant, would be a snapshot of Manu Ginobili in an appropriate pose of fatigue and frustration.
Look in his eyes.
How many titles would the Spurs have won the past five years with this Ginobili?
The collage would help explain how difficult these title runs are. Things have to fall right for two months, and the Spurs were running uphill from the start. A 55-win Suns team was as daunting a sixth seed as the league has seen.
That Game 1 against the Suns looked a lot like Game 1 against the Lakers. Just as the Suns blew a lead in San Antonio, changing all emotions and dynamics, so did the Spurs with a 20-point lead in Los Angeles.
The Hornets were as rough in the next round, and the Spurs’ comeback then will eventually be the fond memory of the season. Down 0-2, against a talented, younger team, the Spurs survived and went farther than they had in any of their previous repeat attempts.
All of it was more difficult and more remarkable because of Ginobili. Or, rather, the lack of Ginobili. He was never the same since landing badly in the Phoenix series, and this goes back to the common thread of championship teams.
Things have to go right. And Ginobili, coming off his best regular season, getting his own MVP mention for the first time, wasn’t right.
Some days he said he hurt, and some days he said it didn’t matter. Doctors shrugged, and coaches didn’t dwell on the chronic soreness in his left ankle.
But after Thursday, one coach guessed Ginobili had been about half of what he has been in the past. Or, as Brent Barry said, “We had ‘Ma.’ We were missing ‘Nu.’”
The stat sheet backed up that. In four games of the Western Conference finals, Ginobili averaged just over eight points.
In the other game he scored 30. Not coincidentally, that was also the only game the Spurs won in this series.
But even that breakthrough game was about him making 3-pointers, and he said the same Thursday. He had none of the lift and explosion that makes him who he is.
Bryant had enough for both of them. With Pau Gasol to work with —and without Gasol the Lakers would have been gone in the first round — Bryant put on a show worthy of both his MVP award and his hype.
Afterward Ginobili praised Bryant, and he said the Lakers “played better than we did when it counted.” He also used the word “great” when describing them, but there wasn’t much enthusiasm behind it.
Little wonder he also said he didn’t think there is a 4-1 difference between the teams. He said this, too: “I don’t know if they are really that much better than us, or Phoenix and New Orleans.”
If he sounded frustrated, that’s because he was. Bryant went for 17 points in the fourth Thursday, and he was both clutch and artistic. But, just a year ago, Ginobili did the same.
In the last road game in each of the last three series, in fourth quarters alone, Ginobili went for 15 against the Suns, 16 against the Jazz and 13 to close out the Cavaliers.
Take that way, and what do the Spurs have in the past five years? Maybe the 2003 title, but nothing more.
With about five minutes left Thursday and trailing by two, the Spurs tried for more. Bryant missed, and the Spurs swung the ball, and Barry passed up a 3-point attempt to set up Ginobili.
The collage should show this, too, because it is another fitting image: Ginobili shooting for the lead and missing.
“Ma” was there. “Nu” wasn’t.
[email protected]
http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/columnists/bharvey/stories/MYSA053008.1D.COL.BKNharvey.spurs.41c72e64.html
Web Posted: 05/30/2008 12:50 AM CDT
San Antonio Express-News
LOS ANGELES — Cue up dramatic music. Put everything in slow motion. Then roll the collage.
The Tim Duncan three against the Suns would start off. A sweaty, bald-headed ref would follow.
A picture of the Ring of Fire would be required from New Orleans, as would an image to reflect how hot Tony Parker was in Phoenix in Game 3. They would have to find something to tell about a Game 7 win on the road, as well as some video from the sleep-over on the tarmac.
Yes, the no-call would not be forgotten.
But the conclusive picture, contrasted against the endless power and skill of Kobe Bryant, would be a snapshot of Manu Ginobili in an appropriate pose of fatigue and frustration.
Look in his eyes.
How many titles would the Spurs have won the past five years with this Ginobili?
The collage would help explain how difficult these title runs are. Things have to fall right for two months, and the Spurs were running uphill from the start. A 55-win Suns team was as daunting a sixth seed as the league has seen.
That Game 1 against the Suns looked a lot like Game 1 against the Lakers. Just as the Suns blew a lead in San Antonio, changing all emotions and dynamics, so did the Spurs with a 20-point lead in Los Angeles.
The Hornets were as rough in the next round, and the Spurs’ comeback then will eventually be the fond memory of the season. Down 0-2, against a talented, younger team, the Spurs survived and went farther than they had in any of their previous repeat attempts.
All of it was more difficult and more remarkable because of Ginobili. Or, rather, the lack of Ginobili. He was never the same since landing badly in the Phoenix series, and this goes back to the common thread of championship teams.
Things have to go right. And Ginobili, coming off his best regular season, getting his own MVP mention for the first time, wasn’t right.
Some days he said he hurt, and some days he said it didn’t matter. Doctors shrugged, and coaches didn’t dwell on the chronic soreness in his left ankle.
But after Thursday, one coach guessed Ginobili had been about half of what he has been in the past. Or, as Brent Barry said, “We had ‘Ma.’ We were missing ‘Nu.’”
The stat sheet backed up that. In four games of the Western Conference finals, Ginobili averaged just over eight points.
In the other game he scored 30. Not coincidentally, that was also the only game the Spurs won in this series.
But even that breakthrough game was about him making 3-pointers, and he said the same Thursday. He had none of the lift and explosion that makes him who he is.
Bryant had enough for both of them. With Pau Gasol to work with —and without Gasol the Lakers would have been gone in the first round — Bryant put on a show worthy of both his MVP award and his hype.
Afterward Ginobili praised Bryant, and he said the Lakers “played better than we did when it counted.” He also used the word “great” when describing them, but there wasn’t much enthusiasm behind it.
Little wonder he also said he didn’t think there is a 4-1 difference between the teams. He said this, too: “I don’t know if they are really that much better than us, or Phoenix and New Orleans.”
If he sounded frustrated, that’s because he was. Bryant went for 17 points in the fourth Thursday, and he was both clutch and artistic. But, just a year ago, Ginobili did the same.
In the last road game in each of the last three series, in fourth quarters alone, Ginobili went for 15 against the Suns, 16 against the Jazz and 13 to close out the Cavaliers.
Take that way, and what do the Spurs have in the past five years? Maybe the 2003 title, but nothing more.
With about five minutes left Thursday and trailing by two, the Spurs tried for more. Bryant missed, and the Spurs swung the ball, and Barry passed up a 3-point attempt to set up Ginobili.
The collage should show this, too, because it is another fitting image: Ginobili shooting for the lead and missing.
“Ma” was there. “Nu” wasn’t.
[email protected]