Monday, January 7, 2008

The Return of Manu

Ginobili seems to have returned in full form, albeit sporting a bandage on his left hand to protect his finger. I kind of dig it...it makes him look tough as nails, like he just got out of an alley fight or something. He scored 23 against the Clippers in his return (12 in the fourth quarter).

His return, of course, means another Spurs goes down. Duncan collided knees with Corey Maggette, but he seems to be OK.

The Spurs' offense struggled with Manu and Barry both out. Although Finley played great in their absence (17.8 points a game while Manu was well-dressed behind the bench), the Spurs lost some obvious offensive firepower. Ime Udoka has yet to find his shooting touch (37.5% from the field, 25.6% from three) and Popovich resorted to signing DeMarr Johnson. Yes, that DeMarr Johnson (don't worry, he was already cut).

But, despite a 6-6 stretch, the Spurs are still where they want to be. They won against the Knicks and the Clippers based on experience and 4th quarter savvy, not just talent. While the Suns deal with chemistry problems and the Celtics deal with....ummm...being arrogant pricks, it's good to see the Spurs will always have their grit to rely on.

2 comments:

AustinSportsGuy said...

Either the mainstream media ignored the Celtics antics after the Detroit game because they don't want to make them out to be bad guys.

I was surprised to read that it happened because no one else reported it.

But aren't the Boston Celtics running themselves ragged? Won't they be exhausted by the time the playoffs come around?

Garnett, Allen and Pierce are all averaging at least 35 minutes per game. Surprisingly Garnett is 3rd on the team at 35, Allen in 2nd at nearly 38 and Pierce in the top 15 in the league at more than 38.

How can they expect to win in the playoffs with their old starters playing so many minutes and without much help from the bench?

Elliot Cole said...

I hadn't thought of that as the reason that their antics were ignored....but good point.