Tuesday night, during garbage time of
the Spurs' blowout of the New Jersey Nets, Duncan had a plan. Working in conjunction with an assistant coach to his left, he bided his time, waiting for Manu to turn around and sit. Tony, just as before, sits down and tries to avoid giving anything away, but you can tell the tension is getting to him.
As Manu finishes his conversation and turns around, Duncan launches his attack. Reaching for the cup being handed to him by Pop's assistant, he tries to quickly place it beneath Ginobili as Manu had done so successfully last month.
But the hand-off is fumbled, then the placement is off, then an adjustment is needed, then ... in all, Tim makes five different attempts to get the cup down before Manu sits. And Ginobili saw every one of them because he was checking his seat, just in case.