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			    <title>Manu Ginobili | San Antonio Spurs | NBA | Juiced Sports News</title> 
				<link>http://juicedsportsblog.com/sports-news/nba/san-antonio-spurs/manu-ginobili</link> 
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			<title>Jalen Rose Says Tony Allen&#039;s Flop Was Worthy Of A Pulitzer Prize</title>
			<link>http://juicedsportsblog.com/sports-news/news/jalen-rose-says-tony-allens-flop-was-worthy-of-a-pulitzer-prize</link>
			<description><![CDATA[ When Manu Ginobili hit Tony Allen with a flagrant foul late in last night&#039;s Grizzlies-Spurs game, Allen engaged in a truly fantastic bit of theater by pretending that Ginobili&#039;s foul had caused him to slam his head against the floor. It was a flop for the ages (which doesn&#039;t change the fact that the foul was definitely a flagrant, by the way), and ESPN analyst Jalen Rose was so impressed by it that he though Allen deserved a prize for outstanding...uh...literature?Read more...    ]]></description>
			<pubDate>Wed, 22 May 2013 10:30:01 EDT</pubDate>
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			<title>Unlikely Big 3 has Memphis in 1st Western finals (Yahoo! Sports)</title>
			<link>http://juicedsportsblog.com/sports-news/news/unlikely-big-3-has-memphis-in-1st-western-finals-yahoo-sports</link>
			<description><![CDATA[MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) -- The Miami Heat have LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. The Spurs have dominated for years with the trio of Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili.]]></description>
			<pubDate>Fri, 17 May 2013 17:30:02 EDT</pubDate>
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			<title>Spurs trio outduels Warriors duo</title>
			<link>http://juicedsportsblog.com/sports-news/news/spurs-trio-outduels-warriors-duo</link>
			<description><![CDATA[Game 5 was not about Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson, the duo dubbed by Warriors head coach Mark Jackson as “the greatest shooting backcourt” in NBA history.Instead, it was about one of the best trios in NBA history. Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili won their 93rd playoff game together, tying Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Byron Scott of the Los Angeles Lakers for the second-most playoff wins as a trio in NBA history.]]></description>
			<pubDate>Wed, 15 May 2013 02:30:02 EDT</pubDate>
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			<title>The rise and fall of Manu, Spurs in Game 4</title>
			<link>http://juicedsportsblog.com/sports-news/news/the-rise-and-fall-of-manu-spurs-in-game-4</link>
			<description><![CDATA[Garrett W. Ellwood/NBAE/Getty ImagesGregg Popovich might have again volunteered to cook Manu Ginobili breakfast if a late 3 had dropped.OAKLAND, Calif. -- Before the San Antonio Spurs squandered their last chances to salvage Game 4, an eventual 97-87 Game 4 overtime loss to the Golden State Warriors, Manu Ginobili had another hero&#039;s set up, similar to the one he seized in Game 1.  Only this time, Manu had been playing brilliantly all game. Only this time, Manu demonstrated further genius when conjuring his big, open shot.]]></description>
			<pubDate>Sun, 12 May 2013 21:00:02 EDT</pubDate>
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			<title>Klay Thompson Does A Damn Good Steph Curry Impersonation</title>
			<link>http://juicedsportsblog.com/sports-news/news/klay-thompson-does-a-damn-good-steph-curry-impersonation</link>
			<description><![CDATA[
Game 2 goes to Golden State, on the backs of an unconscious Klay Thompson and some crucial makes from Steph Curry. If not for a once-in-a-decade San Antonio comeback, they would be up 2-0. They should be. But the what-ifs don&#039;t matter if one what-if is legit—if the Warriors, on the strength of their fearsome backcourt, are really that much better than the Spurs.

&quot;I think for seven-and-a-half quarters, we&#039;ve played better basketball than they have,&quot; Curry said.

This one had the feel of another collapse. A 19-point lead late in the third was cut to six with four minutes left. But Curry, who had a relatively rough night (7-20 shooting for 22 points, half his Game 1 total), scored five straight to seal it.
It was Curry&#039;s backcourt partner, though, who had his podium game. Klay Thompson had 34 points and 14 rebounds, and oh by the way, Elias says the only guards to do that in a playoff game are Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, and Vince Carter.
Thompson did his damage early, scoring 29 in the first half, 17 in the second quarter.  He was 8-9 from beyond the arc.  It looked like—well, it looked like all those Steph Curry highlight reels that show him lighting it up for a quarter at a time.

&quot;I thought it was polite of them to at least take turns and not be on fire on the same night,&quot; Gregg Popovich deadpanned.
Thompson&#039;s defense has been there all series, matched up against the wily Tony Parker. On Monday, Parker scored 16 of his 28 points after Thompson fouled out in the fourth. Last night, Parker was held to 7-17 from the field. Though they&#039;re built around shooting, the Warriors can get back up the court—as Manu Ginobili said last night, &quot;they&#039;re younger and more athletic than us.&quot;
Younger and more athletic than just about any roster left. &quot;We were set up to win in the regular season and in the playoffs,&quot; Mark Jackson said. &quot;This brand of basketball wins games.&quot; He&#039;s talking about the shooting—about the Warriors&#039; backcourt&#039;s ability go on a run at any given moment, even when points are dear. But the youth matters. Golden State is built for this two-month grind, and built to get better, stay fresher as the playoffs go on. Maybe they&#039;re too young now, too prone to things like blowing Monday&#039;s game. But here&#039;s a terrifying thought for an mostly aging, parity-stricken Western Conference: each Warriors win is another game of playoff experience for next year. And the years after that.]]></description>
			<pubDate>Thu, 09 May 2013 09:30:02 EDT</pubDate>
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			<title>Gregg Popovich, cooking omelettes</title>
			<link>http://juicedsportsblog.com/sports-news/news/gregg-popovich-cooking-omelettes</link>
			<description><![CDATA[Jeff McDonald of the San Antonio Express-News writes about how mad Gregg Popovich was at Manu Ginobili for a contested long 3 with 44 seconds left.Then the Argentine hit the game-winning 3 at the end of the second overtime, which changed everything. (And hell no the play wasn&#039;t drawn up for Ginobili.)&quot;I went from trading him on the spot,&quot; Popovich said, &quot;to wanting to cook him breakfast tomorrow.&quot;Afterward, Ginobili played along.&quot;I&#039;ll have an omelet,&quot; he said, &quot;with mushroom.]]></description>
			<pubDate>Tue, 07 May 2013 13:30:03 EDT</pubDate>
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			<title>Manu Ginobili&#039;s Stumbling Heroics, In His Own Words</title>
			<link>http://juicedsportsblog.com/sports-news/news/manu-ginobilis-stumbling-heroics-in-his-own-words</link>
			<description><![CDATA[
After a furious comeback, two overtimes, and 44 points from Steph Curry, the game that had everything came down to Manu Ginobili. But not before he nearly gave Gregg Popovich and Spurs fans a heart attack. 
The Warriors, paced by the ineffable Curry, seemed bound to break one of the NBA&#039;s longest losing streaks—entering last night, they had dropped 29 in a row in San Antonio. But Golden State found itself up 16 with under four minutes remaining. The Warriors started missing, and the Spurs starting hitting nearly every time up the court, and somehow, by the time Danny Green hit a three on the last possession of regulation, the Spurs had gone on an 18-2 run to tie.
Manu, how&#039;d San Antonio complete that incredible comeback?

&quot;I have no clue. I&#039;ve really got to watch it to see what happened.&quot;

This is sort of what Ginobili does. He gets intoxicated by the game and by the moment, and enters a fugue state where he&#039;s capable of truly amazing things, or truly dumb choices. With 44 seconds remaining in the second overtime, with San Antonio up three, Ginobili inexplicably attempted a contested three with 11 seconds still on the shot clock.
Manu, what were you thinking?

&quot;I took a really bad shot. I had no chance whatsoever to make it to the basket. I couldn&#039;t penetrate; I was very tired. Jack gave me a couple of feet and I thought I could make it.&quot;

This explains nothing. Ginobili could have passed out to any of his teammates who were having a better shooting night (all of them), or just hold for an equally prayer-less shot and run off another quarter of the game clock. 
Manu, what&#039;d your coach say to you after you took that shot?

 &quot;He didn&#039;t say a word. He has faces that mean a lot.&quot;

Naturally, redemption found Ginobili on the Spurs&#039; last chance, despite a play specifically drawn up to keep him away from the ball.
Manu, what did they tell you in that last huddle?

&quot;They told me just go screen and stay far from the play.&quot;

As he set a pick for Tony Parker, the first option, and stayed wide to open the paint for Boris Diaw, the second option, the Warriors got crossed up by the Spurs&#039; movement and left Ginobili all alone. With a wide open look, he wasn&#039;t passing this up:

Manu, how do you sum up a pretty ugly game in which you went 5-20 from the field?

&quot;It wasn&#039;t my best shooting night, but it really helps when you hit the last one.&quot;

Out of the mouths of babes. But on Ginobili&#039;s stinking, sparkling night, we have to give the last word to Gregg Popovich, who&#039;s as helpless as anyone when Ginobili gets it in his mind to do Ginobili things. 

&quot;I went from wanting to trade him on the spot to wanting to cook breakfast for him tomorrow morning,&quot; Popovich said. &quot;That&#039;s the truth. When I talk to him and say, `Manu,&#039; he goes, `This is what I do.&#039; That&#039;s what he&#039;s going to tell me. I stopped coaching him a long time ago.&quot;
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			<pubDate>Tue, 07 May 2013 09:00:05 EDT</pubDate>
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			<title>That Warriors-Spurs Game Was Bonkers</title>
			<link>http://juicedsportsblog.com/sports-news/news/that-warriorsspurs-game-was-bonkers</link>
			<description><![CDATA[ Manu Ginobili hit the game-winning shot with 1.2 seconds left in double-overtime to put a bow on an absolutely incredible game. With less than four minutes left in regulation Klay Thompson fouled out with the Warriors up 104-88. Chris Webber said something along the lines of &quot;luckily, they don&#039;t need him anymore.&quot;
Whoops. You can&#039;t blame Webber, though, the Warriors were up 16 and Stephen Curry was being Stephen Curry. But then the goddamned Spurs went on a 15-0 run led by Tony Parker and Kawhi Leonard to make it 104-103 Golden State. Jarrett Jack put the Warriors back up three with 29 seconds to go in the fourth and Danny Green tied it with 20 seconds left.
Curry badly screwed up the final possession when he froze in the middle of the lane with nowhere to go and was forced to throw up an impossible shot. To overtime we went. This game, like that freaking lady screaming her face off, was just heating up. 
With two minutes remaining in the first overtime the Spurs took their first lead at 113-111 since the first quarter when it was 3-2. They would relinquish, of course, and we went to double-overtime.
Steph Curry was kind of missing in the overtime periods and it seemed like the Spurs were going to put it away for good, up by as many as five with a minute and a half left, but Curry finally resurfaced. With 32 seconds left, he dropped a filthy finger roll on a quick drive to the basket. He then assisted on Kent Bazemore&#039;s go-ahead layup with 3.9 seconds left. 
Then Manu Ginobili hit a three-pointer to put the Spurs up 129-127 with 1.2 seconds left and fuck, you just knew the game was going to end like this. It was a truly great game and ended the only way truly great games can end, but man it would have been sweet if Golden State hung on. If only so we would have been spared that shrieking lady.]]></description>
			<pubDate>Tue, 07 May 2013 01:30:02 EDT</pubDate>
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			<title>Is There Any Joy In Sweeping These Lakers?</title>
			<link>http://juicedsportsblog.com/sports-news/news/is-there-any-joy-in-sweeping-these-lakers</link>
			<description><![CDATA[
&quot;Let&#039;s try for a miracle,&quot; Mike D&#039;Antoni told his undermanned, overmatched team before Game 4. &quot;Why not?&quot;
Why not? Because this is real life, and a ragtag group consisting of D-League castoffs, disgruntled big men, and Chris Duhon don&#039;t upset the San Antonio Spurs, and they don&#039;t heroically fight back from 3-0. They go quietly, painfully, in front of a Staples Center crowd that cheered just once all evening, when Kobe Bryant limped out to sit behind the Lakers bench.

No Bryant. No Metta World Peace. No Steve Nash or Steve Blake or Jodie Meeks. Lots of Andrew Goudelock and Chris Duhon and Pau Gasol and Dwight Howard, who was ejected in the third. At least one of those last two is unlikely to be in purple and gold next year. 
The Spurs did their part in this execution, taking the lead on the opening possession and never giving it back. Their 103-82 victory was their usual workmanlike dismantling—coach Gregg Popovich praised his players for keeping their energy level high, as if this was a preseason game instead of a playoff clincher.
The Spurs sounded almost bittersweet about the sweep, in which they averaged a 19-point margin of victory. Do these quotes read happy, or just relieved?

&quot;Obviously, it wasn&#039;t a fair fight,&quot; Popovich said. &quot;When you&#039;re a competitor, you want to compete on an even basis, and the Lakers weren&#039;t able to do that. ... Even though it wasn&#039;t a fair fight, we still want to win the series, and I&#039;m glad we did. Our focus was great.&quot;


&quot;It was just a weird feeling,&quot; Tony Parker said. &quot;Obviously, I am happy we won, but it was just weird. They were missing a lot of guys, so we&#039;re just happy to go to the next round.&quot;



&quot;It’s really hard to measure this play because they were missing five players in the last two games,&quot; Manu Ginobili said.&quot; They’re missing five outside players which gives us a big advantage...We never thought about who was playing or who wasn’t and just competed.&quot;

There&#039;s not a ton of joy for Lakers-haters either, or at least those who can respect Kobe Bryant as a player but are sick of seeing every incarnation of his supporting cast succeed wildly. This was supposed to be his last go-round, with Steve Nash and Dwight Howard a pretty damned good consolation prize for losing out on Chris Paul. But neither Nash nor Howard were ever completely healthy, and when Bryant crumbled with an Achilles tear, it deprived us of any chance to see the full-strength Lakers go down—always more satisfying than an anticlimactic bow like this one.
Bryant will be 35 next season, with a disproportionate number of miles. Pau Gasol will likely be gone, a luxury tax casualty if L.A. has any hope of re-signing Dwight Howard. These Lakers have a few more years in them, a few more chances for Bryant to win, or go down fighting. Either would be preferable to this feeble fart of a season.]]></description>
			<pubDate>Mon, 29 Apr 2013 09:30:02 EDT</pubDate>
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			<title>Spurs&#039; Ginobili &#039;feeling good&#039; day after Game 1 (Yahoo! Sports)</title>
			<link>http://juicedsportsblog.com/sports-news/news/spurs-ginobili-feeling-good-day-after-game-1-yahoo-sports</link>
			<description><![CDATA[SAN ANTONIO (AP) -- Gregg Popovich can rest easy. Manu Ginobili is just fine.]]></description>
			<pubDate>Mon, 22 Apr 2013 19:00:04 EDT</pubDate>
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