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don't these es (reporters) ever sleep?
This seems to be the updated version of his earlier piece, with the added 'Free Throwing' piece.
Ginobili looking for redemption
Jeff McDonald
The last time the Spurs faced the Los Angeles Lakers, in last season's Western Conference finals, Manu Ginobili was hobbled with an ankle injury that would eventually require surgery.
The ailment left him at less than full strength — Ma without the Nu, as Brent Barry noted at the time. Ginobili averaged just 12.6 points in the series, which the Lakers won in five games, and shot 35.8 percent.
So you might expect, with the Lakers facing the Spurs tonight for the first time since June, Ginobili would be eager to finally show them the full Manu. There is just one problem with that plan.
“I'm not showing the other 28 teams a lot so far,” Ginobili said. “I am still not feeling like myself. So I am more concerned about myself than who we are playing.”
In 24 games since returning from offseason surgery to repair an impingement in his left ankle, Ginobili, 31, is averaging 14.5 points, his fewest since 2003-04.
Still, Ginobili is certainly feeling better than he was the last time he faced the Lakers. He says he has no pain in the ankle.
Over the past several games, he has begun to show more and more flashes of the Ginobili of old, a heartening sign to coach Gregg Popovich.
“I think he's real close to being consistently able to do the things we need to have him do for us to be a top-level team,” Popovich said.
The next step Ginobili hopes to take in his recovery is at the 3-point line.
His average there has risen every season of his career, peaking at 40.1 percent last season. This season, Ginobili is shooting 33.3 percent from 3-point range, well off his career rate of 37.9.
“It's something that opens everything for me,” Ginobili said of his 3-point shooting. “You feel you've got one more weapon. Now it's not falling, and it's hurting me. I've just got to work on it, and sooner or later, it's going to come.”
Free throwing: In their endless attempt to make practice time less tedious, Spurs coaches have organized a team-wide free-throw drive.
The brainchild of assistant Chip Engelland, the drive calls for each player to pledge a certain amount of free throw attempts before leaving the gym each day. A table charting the team's ulative total is intermittently displayed on the wall of the Spurs' practice facility.
“If you can meet what you pledge, the total goes up, and we reach our goal,” said center Matt Bonner, who has promised Engelland 75 free throws a day.
The goal is to get to 100,000 attempts. Currently, the Spurs are inching toward the 45,000 mark.
Nobody seems to know what happens when the Spurs reach the magic number.
“I'm curious myself,” Bonner said. “Something good, I hope. Like a party at Chuck E. Cheese.”
The extra free-throw practice certainly couldn't hurt. The Spurs are shooting 75.8 percent from the foul line this season, which ranks 20th in the NBA.
don't these es (reporters) ever sleep?
always thinking with his stomach.“I'm curious myself,” Bonner said. “Something good, I hope. Like a party at Chuck E. Cheese.”
The practices seem to be working.. Spurs making more of their FTs lately.
Yeah. 20th as opposed to last, but an improvement over seasons past nonetheless.
Yeah, but the guy really has blue-collar tastes. I mean, something good = Chuck E. Cheese.always thinking with his stomach.
Maybe the epicure in Pop is what keeps Bonner in and out of the Dog House.
14.5 points per game? what a joke
can't we just trade Manu for a real star?
You are redeemed mr Ginobili.
You'd like to see him in the Lakers roster, don't you?
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