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Manu doesnt have any other legs to favor so I think he will be alright.
Manu's comeback pressed for time
Jeff McDonald
NEW ORLEANS — For more than a month, Spurs guard Manu Ginobili has spent most of his waking hours on a stationary bike. Or on a treadmill. Or kicking away in a swimming pool.
Now that he's back on the basketball court, the real work begins.
Two games into his second comeback from a sore ankle, Ginobili knows he still has a long way to go before he feels like himself again.
“I know this is going to be slow,” Ginobili said. “I've got to be patient. I've just got to worry about winning games and building confidence.”
It was easier to be patient earlier in the year, when Ginobili missed the first 16 games of the season while recovering from offseason surgery on his left ankle. With 10 games left, and with the postseason in sight, Ginobili's latest recovery is on the clock.
There is little time for Ginobili to reacquaint himself, and his legs, with the nightly marathon that is an NBA game. There is little time for him to rediscover the beautiful groove he was in before hitting the injured list again in mid-February with a stress reaction in his right ankle.
In four of his last eight games before being sidelined a second time, Ginobili topped 30 points.
For the immediate future, Ginobili's goals remain modest.
“I'm just going to try to blend in and not hurt the team until I get back in shape,” he said.
His two games back from his most recent injury have been a portrait in “hit or miss.”
In his first game back against Atlanta, Ginobili was 1 for 7 from the field. Against the Clippers on Friday, he tallied 14 points and seven assists, and made five of his seven field goals — including a pair of 3-pointers.
It was an encouraging sign for the Spurs, whose hopes for another deep playoff run hinge primarily on the health of Ginobili's ankles.
His latest comeback comes against the backdrop of a tightly congested Western Conference playoff race. The Spurs enter tonight's critical Southwest Division game at New Orleans in second place in the West, with just four games separating them from the seventh-place Hornets.
For much of the past month, coach Gregg Popovich has been tinkering with rotations and combinations, at times producing lineups that might have been drawn from a hat.
Usually by this time, Popovich's rotations for the playoffs have been all but carved in stone. Ginobili's absence has been one disruptive force, as has the addition of free-agent power forward Drew Gooden.
“Nobody wants to do that this late,” Popovich said. “It's just our situation.”
Friday's 111-98 rout of the Clippers was the first time the Spurs' Big Three of Ginobili, Tim Duncan and Tony Parker had played together since Feb. 11. The Spurs are now 29-3 in games in which all three players participate.
Afterward, Ginobili cautioned about reading too much into the reunion.
“We're back, but we aren't ‘back,'” he said. “T.D. didn't play much. I played limited minutes. The team is not used to playing with me. It's going to take a little bit to readjust.
“It's going to be totally different from previous seasons heading into the playoffs.”
Perhaps no Spurs player had to make a bigger adjustment to Ginobili's absence than Parker. Because of that, no Spurs player will have to make a bigger adjustment to Ginobili's return.
With Ginobili and Duncan both battling sporadic injuries this season, the Spurs have asked more from their 26-year-old point guard than ever. Parker responded by posting the most productive season of his career.
He is averaging 21.9 points and 6.9 assists this season, both career highs. In 25 games without Ginobili, those numbers leap to 24.1 points and 7.6 assists.
“Pop has been calling more plays for me with Manu out,” Parker said. “When you get a lot of shots, it helps you get a rhythm.”
Parker is glad to have Ginobili back. He could use the deep breath.
Ginobili, too, is glad to be back. He just can't wait to be “back” back.
“Hopefully, in these last two weeks, 10 days, I have a chance to get back in and feel good about myself,” Ginobili said.
Manu doesnt have any other legs to favor so I think he will be alright.
Wasn't that your line, timvp?
maybe i'm wrong, but i can count "only" three.
I see three 30+ games too, not four.
32 - February 11, @ Raptors
32 - February 2, @ Warriors
30 - January 29, @ Suns
Is McDonald getting worse with the non-existant fact checking?
wat a fail jeff mcdonald is for stealing timvp's line.
it's an idiomatic expression. there's no other colorful way to say it.
did not know that.
You would think that after people commented on MySA about it he would try a little bit harder.
Manu missed the first 12 games, not 16. And I have no idea where that BS about Tony, Manu and Tim combining for a 29-3 record comes from. It's like 28-9 by my count. Manu's played 40 games so far, all but one with Tim (his comeback game at Atlanta), and only his the first two of the season without Tony (when TP had a sprained ankle).
It's kind of embarrassing how the SAEN employs a gentleman who makes as many glaring factual mistakes as McDonald does. Does he not have an editor? Some intern who can fact-check? No wonder the newspaper business is in such shambles.
Spurs records, in case you care:
Big three all playing: 28-9 (.756)
Just Tim and Tony: 9-11 (.450) (You're a moron, Ducks)
Just Tim and Manu: 2-0 (1.000)
Just Tony and Manu: 1-0 (1.000)
Just Tim: 5-2 (.714)
Just Tony: 3-1 (.750)
Just Nobody: 0-1 (.000)
Tim in line-up: 44-22 (.667) Tim not in: 4-2 (.667)
Tony in line-up: 41-21 (.661) Tony not in: 7-3 (.700)
Manu in line-up: 31-9 (.775) Manu not in: 17-15 (.531)
Just sayin'. [CoM]
So the Spurs would win 62 games if they built the team around Parker? You just gave ducks more ammo
It feels as if though we've been without manu so long that now it sems as if its just a big bonus now that he's back. we were good without him now we're scary.
Mcdonald is a joke. What type of a sports writer is he? His facts are hardly accurate and sometimes his articles are so lazy. Not much thought goes into writing many of his pieces.
Perhaps he logs on to spurstalk for some of his fodder, but if that's the case, somebody should inform him that he shouldn't take all his advice from Sequ or Ducks. I think many people here on ST could do a better job than the writings we regularly see from this clown.
I don't know how SAEN can condone so many mistakes.
They've got a better record without him than with him, LJ. I guess Tim and Manu are just holding Tony back...So the Spurs would win 62 games if they built the team around Parker? You just gave ducks more ammo
So ....Spurs records, in case you care:
Big three all playing: 28-9 (.756)
Just Tim and Tony: 9-11 (.450) (You're a moron, Ducks)
Just Tim and Manu: 2-0 (1.000)
Just Tony and Manu: 1-0 (1.000)
Just Tim: 5-2 (.714)
Just Tony: 3-1 (.750)
Just Nobody: 0-1 (.000)
Tim in line-up: 44-22 (.667) Tim not in: 4-2 (.667)
Tony in line-up: 41-21 (.661) Tony not in: 7-3 (.700)
Manu in line-up: 31-9 (.775) Manu not in: 17-15 (.531)
Just sayin'. [CoM]
1) Manu in line-up: 31-9 (.775)
2) Big three all playing: 28-9 (.756)
3) Just Tony: 3-1 (.750)
Nice to see these numbers, could anyone send to POP?
Damn shame really. You'd figure there would be some sort of pride in this man in regards to creating his own work.
29-3... how important is having the big 3 together again?
Don't believe everything you read. Or at least take the time to read the whole thread.29-3... how important is having the big 3 together again?
It's not 29-3. That's crazy. It's 28-9.
Well, you could pull the rotations out of your ass--which is exactly what it looked like at times.
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