During the Sacramento game on Easter, there was a play where Drew Gooden got the foul and the shot. During the replay you could see the Spurs’ bench, who were mostly sitting and clapping as most professional athletes do during a regular season game. However, the injured Manu Ginobili, from behind the bench, jumped up in the air and screamed.
That encapsulates one of the things we’ll be missing in the 09′ playoffs, a player with that kind of competitive spirit. People around the NBA can say what they will about him: flopper, a player on a team who is “bad for the NBA”, but you’d be hard pressed to find anyone who questions how much Manu Ginobili wants to win.
Manu’s competitiveness and the Spurs relying upon him as a late game go-to-player are the two things that will be missed the most this Spring.
It’s not so bad, right? The Spurs won a championship without Manu before–it can happen. Sure, we had The Admiral then, but now we have Jacque Vaughn, a savvy, non-talented, but high IQ basketball player. He can’t jump high, but he’s really smart. That changes everything.
As bleak as another run at the finals may look, I still believe it’s possible, but there are a few things that have to happen:
Stop Dying by the 3 Ball
The second half of the season brought the Spur’s three point percentage back to reality. The question here is: which is the real figure, the Christmas time Bonner and Mason Jr’s 40 percent plus, or the 30 percent and below we’re currently shooting?
There’s not much you can do for shooters who are in a slump, except let them shoot out of it. They need carte blanche, sadly. You have to crawl through that mile of poop-lined sewage before you’re freed up to shoot the lights out, if anything is to be learned from watching the Shawshank Redemption on cable.
Punch Someone in the Mouth
If the Spurs don’t do this figuratively, I hope they do it literally. Other teams are going to be more athletic en masse, and to make a deep run the Spur’s defense has to be the key. I heard Bowen say this during a pre-game interview, so I decided to plagiarize him here: we need more defense.
And God willing, if they make it to see the Lakers, they’ll have to be physically tough. As gifted as Gasol is, he’s a softie–someone needs to belly up and frustrate him, or he’ll have a field day with those short, European, non-deodorant wearing jumpers. Kobe will get his, relatively, but you can’t get killed by Gasol and Bynum down low.
If the Spurs go out early I’ll be bummed, however with the key injury, Duncan’s lack of mobility, and the overall bad luck the team has had this season, if they make any sort of run you have to label it as a good season. They have nothing to lose, so maybe they’ll win it all.
This is my first post at SpursDynasty. Thanks to everyone for allowing me to contribute.
