McDonald: Re-living the Manu save

[duncan228]

Re-living the Manu save
By Jeff McDonald

By now, you've probably read about/seen replays of/heard your grandmother talking about Manu Ginobili's dive-into-cameraman's-row save of his own errant pass Wednesday in Oklahoma City.

The play saved that game for the Spurs, setting Richard Jefferson up for the game-winning jumper in the 109-108 overtime victory. It also underscored what might be Ginobili's best skill -- the complete inability to dwell on a bad play or bad moment.

Ginobili was 0-for-10 at the time of the save. The only reason he had thrust himself headlong into a bunch of photographers was to correct his own error. He had been the one who threw the ball out of bounds, nearly squandering the game.

Didn't bother him. He made the game-saving play anyway.

"I think in that regard, he's in the same category as guys like Kobe (Bryant) and Michael (Jordan)," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. "Without a doubt in my mind. He's not as talented as them, but his compe iveness is at a real high level. He has an innate knack for knowing what it's going to take to win the game."

After watching and re-watching the play on film, Popovich gained a new appreciation for just how dangerous the play was. The most amazing part of his amazing save was that Ginobili emerged virtually unscathed, with just a small scratch on his left elbow, courtesy of someone's camera.

"He was that high off the ground," Popovich said, holding his hands mere inches apart. "And he was parallel. It was incredible."

Ginobili admits he owes a good bit of that play to good fortune. He didn't know George Hill was standing in the corner, ready to receive Ginobili's diving, no-look pass.

"I saw a flash of black (jersey)," Ginobili said. "I thought it was Tony."

[duncan228]

I know it's been posted, but I think it should have been part of the blog.

[timvp]

@ (jersey)

[OldSilentHill]

He is a f****** winner.

His new Facebook update reflects how tired is everybody:


Manu GinobiliAWFUL 2nd half last nite and 2day we play a good MEM team, 4th in 5 days, rough! // Pésimo 2do tiempo ayer y hoy jugamos de nuevo con un buen equipo como MEM. Va a estar durísimo, 4to partido en 5 noches...

http://www.facebook.com/ManuGinobili...d=249776466707

Hope Pop uses Ian

[Hemotivo]

@ (jersey)

[polandprzem]

He is a f****** winner.

His new Facebook update reflects how tired is everybody:


Manu GinobiliAWFUL 2nd half last nite and 2day we play a good MEM team, 4th in 5 days, rough! // Pésimo 2do tiempo ayer y hoy jugamos de nuevo con un buen equipo como MEM. Va a estar durísimo, 4to partido en 5 noches...

http://www.facebook.com/ManuGinobili...d=249776466707

Hope Pop uses Ian

How is it always bad for spurs?
When they had few days off it was bad. Now the scheudle getting tougher it is even worse /?/
This is not the first Ginobili year in NBA. And they should know how to handle such situations. It's surprising also because pop manages minutes well (TP is exeption).
Maybe Pop has tough practices and the players are off?

Against Bobcats it looked like none of the set plays could be finished. First I thought that Larry Brown knows Pop so well that he cutting the plays so well. But for real it was lack of intensity and agression so Charlotte took adventage of it.
To get things worse spurs lost the fun aspect of the game... Well it;s a long season and games like this happens. Can they recover?

Memphis is no joke and we need frontline to step up. It might be an ugly game though - Grizzlies are on a b2b as well.


ps. I got a feeling that Thabett will have his best game.

[OldSilentHill]

How is it always bad for spurs?
When they had few days off it was bad. Now the scheudle getting tougher it is even worse /?/
This is not the first Ginobili year in NBA. And they should know how to handle such situations. It's surprising also because pop manages minutes well (TP is exeption).
Maybe Pop has tough practices and the players are off?

Against Bobcats it looked like none of the set plays could be finished. First I thought that Larry Brown knows Pop so well that he cutting the plays so well. But for real it was lack of intensity and agression so Charlotte took adventage of it.
To get things worse spurs lost the fun aspect of the game... Well it;s a long season and games like this happens. Can they recover?

Memphis is no joke and we need frontline to step up. It might be an ugly game though - Grizzlies are on a b2b as well.


ps. I got a feeling that Thabett will have his best game.

I think it´s about psicology as well. They had a lot of pressure. Let´s remember:

- Bad start.
- They are building new chemistry.
- A lot of people talking about season finished.
- Upcoming matchs against Dallas and LA when they had to make a good run (lot of pressure).
- Ugly loss against Dallas (increasing pressure).
- A lot of pressure against Nets (they coudnt loss against the worst team, that´s extra pressure).
- A lot of pressure against LA (you cant loose against a Paul Gasoless team and a "injured" Kobe).
- An epic and very exhausting game against the Thunder.

Here they ended a very hard times. Everybody was talking about the new Spurs.

They somekind relaxed a little and they dint have enough gas, nothing serious, I´m not worried.

Everything would be fine until playoffs, no matter what happens tonight.

Have faith!

[spurs10]

Yeah, we need to "have faith"....they usually respond well to bad play. However, the Grizzlies are gonna play with a lot of intensity tonight. I'm sure beating the Spurs means more to them than we can imagine.