Sir Charles Barkley screams his name in admiration mocking arena announcers. Manu has game.
Manu Ginobili scored the final nine points including seven straight free throws willing the San Antonio Spurs past a young but fast and talented Memphis Grizzly team 104 - 101 in Memphis, Tennessee on Wednesday night.
Down the stretch, the San Antonio Spurs showed why they are the NBA champions, and the Memphis Grizzlies are a team with some growing to do. When his tired team needed a lift on the second night of a back-to-back, Ginobili had the legs to provide it, scoring 30 points to help the Spurs fend of####rizzlies team looking to fend off a bit of its own bad history.
Manu saved his best for when the Spurs needed him most. His driving, twirling, twisting layup over Darko Milicic, spun with the English of a pool shark, broke a 95-95 tie with 32.4 seconds remaining. Ginobili charged into a thicket of opposing players, slid his body between two of them, and — while nearly directly under the backboard — flipped the ball backward and rimward. It rolled around the iron before dropping through, giving the Spurs the last lead they would need. Ginobili could rest on the plane ride home.
"The difference in the game was that Manu Ginobili willed it," Spurs Coach Gregg Popovich said. "He just willed it. He saved the day for us."
Ginobili made five of the Spurs' 12 3-pointers, hit 13 of 14 free throws and had seven assists. Ginobili added drawing a late charge from Grizzlies forward Rudy #### to preserve the Spurs' lead.
In Miami last week, Ginobili checked in about halfway through the first quarter. Before long you could hear oohs and aahs coming from the Heat fans, as Ginobili basically took over the game. His aggressive drives to the basket resulted in seven free throws....he hit every one. Before departing the game for good early in the fourth quarter, the lefty from Bahia Blanca scored 22 points in under 19 minutes of play. Ginobili joked with reporters that he doesn't have any bruises on his body just yet, so he may not exactly be in mid season form.
After putting an extra dash of wear and tear on Ginobili's battered body last season, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich had two offseason orders for his human bruise of an off-guard. Take it easy. And call me in September.
For Ginobili, who scored 16 against the Portland Trail Blazers on Tuesday night, his offseason conditioning program where he did little during August and started training in September is providing early dividends.
"I feel great right now. It seems to be paying off,'' Ginobili said. "I don't know what that means a few months from now, but right now I feel really fresh.''
Manu Ginobili wasn't about to let the Orlando Magic put together another memorable victory against the Spurs. There would be no improbable plays by Dwight Howard on this Friday night. Ginobili made six 3-pointers and finished with 31 points to help San Antonio beat Orlando 98-74. Ginobili had 16 points and five 3s in the third quarter for the Spurs, who extended their season-high winning streak to seven. Tim Duncan added 19 points and 10 rebounds and Michael Finley scored 12 points. Hedo Turkoglu led the Magic with 22 points and Jameer Nelson had 18.
At their last meeting in February, the Spurs were stunned by Howard, who caught an inbounds alley-oop pass from Turkoglu and jammed it with less than a second to play to give the Magic a 106-104 victory. "We're happy to get a win against these guys, after a really tough loss a couple of weeks ago,'' Ginobili said. " (Coach Gregg Popovich) said we couldn't allow them to do it again. We remembered that in Orlando we were winning by 16 or 18, something like that, and they came back. Because they have talent.''
Ginobili matched one franchise record with five 3-pointers in the third quarter and another with six total in the second half. He missed only two of the 10 shots he took in the half and scored his 25 points in a span of just 10 minutes, 45 seconds. Ginobili's performance was nearly as thrilling as the 40-point effort he produced in Atlanta last week. "Manu obviously held a hell of a run," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said.
Ginobili said. "...we had to play tougher 'D' and everybody had to go to the boards and get loose balls. And then offensively, something was going to come up." That something was Ginobili. After missing 6 of 9 shots in the first half, he buried three 3-pointers in less than two minutes after the timeout.
Ginobili added another late in the quarter after Orlando again cut the Spurs' lead to six. When Darko Milicic made a pair of free throws to bring the Magic within 62-57, Ginobili pumped in one more 3-pointer at the buzzer after taking a dribble handoff above the key from Robert Horry.
"Those kind of shots are sometimes easier because you have no pressure," Ginobili said. "You know you have to shoot it and nobody's going to say anything. Nobody's going to get upset at you with one second to go."
Ginobili wasn't done. He drove for a layup and a foul early in the fourth quarter, made another 3-pointer then completed another three-point play after Duncan dove to the floor to force a steal. The flurry broke open the game.
"When you face a player like Ginobili you have to decide if you want him driving to the basket or pulling up and shooting behind screens," Magic coach Brian Hill said. "Tonight we wanted Ginobili shooting behind screens."
Unlike in Atlanta, where he often burned the Hawks with his penetration, Ginobili leaned more heavily on his 3-point shot. "I was feeling so comfortable with the shot and so confident," Ginobili said, "that probably I took a couple I shouldn't have."
No one was complaining.
Rockets
The Houston Rockets' super-sized bear mascot, as mascots typically do, trotted out to midcourt during Friday's fourth quarter, sounded his siren and prepared to start firing T-shirts into the Toyota Center crowd. Until, that is, he noticed the players running around him. With Houston coach Jeff Van Gundy staring blankly from the sideline and the Spurs' Gregg Popovich shaking his head in disbelief, the referees called a timeout and shooed off the embarrassed mascot. But give Clutch some credit: For the first time all evening, the Rockets had upstaged Tim Duncan.
Duncan made sure the Spurs had something to smile about after the teams' final regular-season meeting. He knew right away Saturday night was going to be a good night, alright for fightin' you might say. Duncan scored 26 points and the San Antonio Spurs beat the Houston Rockets 97-74 on Saturday night for their season-high eighth straight victory.
Duncan buried a 20-footer on the team's opening possession. He hit his first five shots and scored 15 points in the first quarter. Duncan had eight in a 12-0 run that opened an 18-5 lead with 6:18 to go in the first quarter. He showed off his repertoire: a 14-foot bank shot, a running hook, a driving layup and a turnaround jumper.
"It feels good to hit your first few shots,'' Duncan said. "It makes the rest of the game go easy. My shot felt good the entire night.'' Duncan hit at least four of his trademark bank shots, soft floaters that look off at first before they glance off the glass and fall in. "It's what's going in now,'' he said. "I hope it keeps going in for a while.''
So do the Spurs.
"When he starts like that, it gives him confidence and gives us confidence, too,'' guard Manu Ginobili said. "When he starts making those shots, it opens up the whole game for us. "We played great, especially defensively. It was a great overall game by everybody.''
With the 7-foot-6 Yao out, Duncan worked over the rest of Houston's big men. Dikembe Mutombo had to go to the bench with two quick fouls. Juwan Howard also picked up two in the first quarter, and backup forward Chuck Hayes was hit with three in his first 41/2 minutes on the floor.
"Again, it shows you the value of having a guy you can throw the ball inside to," Van Gundy said. "Collapses the defense, gets you to the free-throw line. He by himself had us in foul trouble in the first half."
"He's definitely been looking to take his shot," Gregg Popovich said. "If he's open, he's going ahead and shooting in rhythm."
The Spurs got 14 points from Michael Finley and 13 points and eight rebounds from Francisco Elson as they won in Houston for the fourth straight time. San Antonio played without All-Star guard Tony Parker, who sat with a strained left hip.
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