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I see some headaches coming for the Centerpiece haters.
Ginobili's surge continues in Spurs' win
Jeff McDonald
Manu Ginobili doesn't presume to know what it's like to be Tracy McGrady.
Ginobili has had injuries, but not a knee injury. He's had surgery, but not microfracture. He's missed months, but not an entire season.
Still, after watching McGrady feel his way around the AT&T Center in a New York Knicks jersey Wednesday night, during what became a 97-87 Spurs victory, Ginobili could sympathize with what McGrady was going through.
This is what it looks like when a former star is just trying to be a basketball player again.
“He's coming from a way worse situation than me,” Ginobili said. “It's not an easy spot to be.”
The same McGrady who once scored 13 points in 33 seconds against the Spurs managed only six in 25 minutes Wednesday. If McGrady could take anything out of his 10th game of the season, it is this: People once wondered whether Ginobili could ever be Ginobili again, too.
As he was in a loss in Cleveland on Monday, Ginobili was brilliant against the Knicks, pacing a Spurs offense missing injured point guard Tony Parker. Making his second straight start, he scored 28 points, with six rebounds and five assists and pushed the Spurs to a victory that only seemed difficult to come by.
Facing a Knicks team that would clinch a franchise-record ninth consecutive losing season, the Spurs (37-25) led from wire-to-wire, and by as many as 15.
When the Spurs tried to give the game away in the third quarter — going the final 5:35 without a field goal, a drought that bled into the fourth — New York (22-42) refused to take it.
The stabilizing force was Ginobili, coming off a season-high 38 points against the Cavaliers. When he wasn't crossing over a defender on the way to the rim, he was hitting floaters or finding Malik Hairston, who played the entire fourth quarter, for a key 16-footer.
Had Ginobili not missed a pair of free throws late in the fourth, he would have logged his first back-to-back 30-point games since February 2008.
The Spurs' bench misses this Ginobili. The reserves accounted for 16 points Wednesday, with Richard Jefferson and Roger Mason Jr. combining for zero.
“In the last two games I scored a lot,” Ginobili said. “Some others, I'll score less, try to create for others. It depends on how opponents guard you.”
When Ginobili is rolling like this, teammate Keith Bogans said, “you just ride the wave.”
“You sit back and just find yourself watching him,” said Bogans, who chipped in 13 points. “He's fun to watch.”
Knicks coach Mike D'Antoni remembers this Ginobili from his days coaching in Phoenix.
“When it's on the line and he's coming at you, it's very difficult to stop,” D'Antoni said.
If the Spurs had their way, D'Antoni wouldn't have seen Ginobili the game-closer Wednesday.
They seemed to have the game in hand midway through the third, before getting sloppy. Five turnovers in six possessions helped fuel the Knicks' rally, and when Danilo Gallinari went to the foul line for two shots with 3:58, it was with a chance to tie.
Gallinari made only one, leaving the Spurs ahead 83-82. Ginobili answered with a shot-put floater, then found Hairston for a jumper, then salvaged a broken possession by throwing in a 3-pointer.
After missing the end of last season with a fractured fibula, people wondered whether the Ginobili of the past two games would ever surface again. Now, the only question around Ginobili is how quickly the Spurs can extend his contract.
“He looks like the old Manu,” Tim Duncan said. “It's great to see.”
If McGrady were paying attention from his spot on the bench, where he spent all but 61/2 minutes of the second half, he'd think the same.
A 32-year-old Ginobili, looking like a star again, looks to be his best-case scenario.
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Slideshow.
http://www.mysanantonio.com/NY_Knick..._97.html?c=n#1
Well I will say what I wanted to say.
People need to start playing and not sit back and watch.
Maybe it was bound to happen eventually, but props to McDonald for an above-average article.
Manu is going through what Kobe's going through (well almost)
I'd rather Bogans and Mason just watch.
this playoffs is definitely different with healthy manu! i book it!
Manu just won't allow the spurs to lose. Hope TP would come back soon, so the spurs juggernaut may roll once again. Nice play by hairston.
Nice to see Manu doing this again
There were a lot moments in this game where i was wishing Tony was playing. He runs this team almost as well as Manu. No one else comes even close. The spurs finished strong at the end but Tony and Manu combo means this win is a comfortable one.
With Tony healthy and playing at the level he played last season we would be pretty ing good, even with our sucky role players.
To think that people were upset we didn't go for McSofty a couple of years ago . . .
They need t lock manu up now! do not let him test free agency
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