Manu is at his best when he's slashing and passing and hustling and rebounding and generally being an unpredictable playmaker. Spurs fans who pay attention know this.
Yes, Manu was healthy enough to play . . . as a glorified facsimile of Brent Barry. Even in his "great" game, most of his points came off of ridiculous outside shooting. He could barely jog down the court, much less throw any opposing defense into disarray.
I'm not saying the Spurs would have definitely won that series if Manu had been healthy. But come on. They had a chance. They nearly won game 1, and that was less than 2 days after having to sleep on an airport runway after beating NO.

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