Touche’ Ginobili; Touche’

Jun 16, 2013; San Antonio, TX, USA; San Antonio Spurs shooting guard Manu Ginobili (20) celebrates against the Miami Heat during the fourth quarter of game five in the 2013 NBA Finals at the AT

Just a few days ago I posted an article on Manu Ginobili pretty much talking about his play during the first four games of the NBA Finals, simply put, he has been playing, bad.  Every San Antonio fan, including myself was taking jabs at him because of his play, but knew he still had a break-out game in him.

Sunday, June 16, NBA Finals Game 5.  Head Coach Gregg Popovich sends in his lineups and low and behold, Manu Ginobili has been placed in the starting lineup.  Were you surprised?  When I saw this I certainly was but knew that Popovich was doing it to boost his confidence up.

It worked.

Ginobili in Game 5 looked like the Manu of the Western Conference Finals just a year ago.  He started, he played 33 minutes and scored 24 points and had 10 assists.

After that stat-line and his play I quickly sent a text over to our Senior Staff Writer John Diaz and told him this:  “That’s it. Ginobili reads our blog.  There is no other way to explain his performance”.

It would be amazing if we knew that he did read our blog, but come on.  Of course John’s response was, “We can only hope”.

That pretty much sums up John, reigning on what I WANT TO believe.  I am going with the realization that he does read Air Alamo.

With Ginobili helping lift the San Antonio Spurs to a game five win and one victory away from clinching their fifth NBA title, Ginobili’s confidence is up, the fans are behind him and they let him hear it as they chanted his name during the game.

Ginobili’s response, he stated that is what he needed.

The first four games he did not let the game come to him but was trying to make something happen, forcing shots, making bad passes, just wasn’t the confident Ginobili we are used to seeing.  During game five, you can tell once he knocked down a few shots after getting good looks, and was precise on his passes, he felt as if he didn’t have to TRY to do so much.

He let the game come to him.

The series now heads back to Miami, as game six tips-off at 8:00 PM CST on Tuesday.