Scribbler's Highlight of the Week: Manu Ginobili's Big Time Shot

Up to this point, Manu Ginobili was not having his best game ever.  In fact, Tony Parker was a huge amount of the reason why the San Antonio Spurs erased a 16-point deficit in the fourth quarter and sent Game 1 of the Western Conference Semifinals against the Golden State Warriors, led by Stephen Curry's amazing 44-point performance with 11 assists, to two overtime periods.  Ginobili not only badly missed a shot that could've ended the game in the first overtime, but he took an errant three pointer when the score was 126-123 with about 48 seconds to go, which led to Curry scoring another one of his signature floaters and a later assist to Ken Bazemore after Parker missed a layup to give the Warriors a 127-126 lead with only 3.9 seconds.  Ahhh, but redemption can be so sweet...

On the second inbound pass attempt, Kawhi Leonard is looking for the open man as both Harrison Barnes and Jarrett Jack take Tony Parker--Barnes decided to roll with Parker since he broke through the pick that Boris Diaw was trying to set.  Bazemore is guarding Diaw to prevent a wide open layup, but the lapse in defensive assignments leaves Ginobili so wide open that he had enough time to call his family in Argentina.  Poor Bazemore didn't stand a chance trying to run from his assignment and get an effective hand in Ginobili's face, and if Washington Wizards' play-by-play TV announcer Steve Buckhantz were calling this game, you would've heard the most emphatic "DAGGER" of all time once Ginobili buried that shot.  Even he was astonished at how it all turned out: "I have no clue [how we won this game].  I really gotta watch it to see what happened."  With Tim Duncan not at 100% due to sickness and Tiago Splitter's unavailability to play at all, Ginobili's instantly classic shot is merely a microcosm of how the Spurs kept fighting despite adversity and is further proof that how you start something doesn't have to dictate how you'll finish it.