Spurs Pull Away From Heat and Seize Control

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/17/sports/spurs-pull-away-from-heat-and-seize-control.html

Version 0 of 1.

SAN ANTONIO — It was fair to wonder, as Manu Ginobili staggered and drifted across eight days and four games, whether a glorious era was fading at last, whether the time of Timmy and Tony and Manu was nearing its fateful end on the muddy banks of the San Antonio River.

There had been doubts before, these last several years, but they seemed more urgent now, with the aging Spurs dueling the Miami Heat in the finals, San Antonio’s championship window perhaps reduced to mere days.

The fretting reached a fevered pitch over the weekend, with even Ginobili wondering whether retirement was nigh. That might still be the case, but the end would not come without one more vintage performance, one more rich memory, one more happy chant to fill AT&T Center.

“Ma-nu! Ma-nu!”

Ginobili made his first start in a year Sunday night, joining Tim Duncan and Tony Parker, and suddenly it was 2003 all over again, the Spurs’ three stars dominating the night in a 114-104 victory to take a 3-2 lead in the series.

Ginobili was electric — darting and slashing and launching from odd angles — in a 24-point, 10-assist performance that statistically ranked among the best of his career. Parker — his strained hamstring apparently sturdy enough — had 26 points, Duncan added 17, and San Antonio led from wire to wire in this pivotal fifth game.

“I knew he would come out tonight,” Duncan said of Ginobili. “I knew he would play well.”

The Spurs are one victory from their fifth title, their fourth with Duncan, Parker and Ginobili together. To win it, they will have to prevail on the road: Game 6 and a potential Game 7 will be at American Airlines Arena.

There should no longer be any doubt that the Spurs, despite their age and injuries, can finish the job. They have never trailed in this series, and on Sunday they answered every Heat run with a powerful counterpunch.

And the Spurs look whole again, now that Ginobili has found himself. He had scored only 30 points in the first four games of the series, looking listless and feeble. But with the Heat having moved to a small lineup in Game 4 — with Mike Miller replacing Udonis Haslem — Spurs Coach Gregg Popovich needed to make a countermove.

“I just had a better game,” Ginobili said, “but I’m not sure it was just because I started.”

The decision to start Ginobili and bench Tiago Splitter was, on the most basic level, a strategic move: the Spurs needed another guard on the floor. Starting Ginobili might also have been a way to snap him out of his funk. Perhaps there was a bit of sentiment involved, too.

This was the Spurs’ last home game of the season, and quite possibly the last for the Spurs’ Big 3. Ginobili becomes a free agent on July 1. He turns 36 on July 28. There is no guarantee he will be back.

If the Spurs were going down, they were going down together.

“I was feeling a big game for Manu,” Parker said. “I’ve been playing with him for a long time.”

Duncan, Parker and Ginobili combined for 67 points, 1 more than the output of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. The Heat got their own throwback performance from Ray Allen, who had 21 points and made four 3-pointers. But the Spurs had an answer for him, too, with Danny Green scoring 24 points, while breaking Allen’s record for 3-pointers in one finals.

Allen hit 22 3-pointers in the 2008 finals for Boston. Green now has 25 (on 38 attempts), with at least one more game to go.

“I had no idea,” said Green, the breakout star of this series. He added, “The basketball gods are in our favor right now.”

For the second time in three years, the Heat are heading home down by 3-2 in the finals, and it ended badly the last time — with the Dallas Mavericks claiming the 2011 championship in Game 6 at American Airlines Arena.

“We’re going to see if we’re a better ball club and if we’re better prepared for this moment,” Wade said.

To defend their title, the Heat will have to do what neither team has done in this series: win two straight games.

After trailing by 17 points in the first half, the Heat cut the deficit to 75-74 late in the third quarter. But Green hit a 3-pointer to stem the tide, and Ginobili followed with two beautiful shots — a baseline floater and a running jumper — triggering chants of “Ma-nu” and launching a spectacular 19-1 run that put the game away.

Ginobili closed the third quarter with a running bank shot and opened the fourth with a jumper, the arena rocking with every swish. Kawhi Leonard’s two free throws made it 96-76 with 9 minutes 12 seconds to play.

Miami cut the deficit to 8 points with 1:37 left, but Parker answered with a layup, and Green hit his sixth 3-pointer to secure the victory.

Since the adoption of the 2-3-2 format, the finals have been tied at 2-2 on 10 occasions. The Game 5 winner has claimed the championship seven times.

Ginobili made the first shot of the game — a long 2-pointer — and assisted on the Spurs’ next three baskets, hitting Green for a layup and Duncan for a dunk and a jumper. By the time he checked out midway through the period, Ginobili had accumulated 7 points, 3 assists and several ovations.

“I’m really excited for Manu, for his performance tonight,” Duncan said. “But we need him to do it one more time.”

REBOUNDS

Manu Ginobili had not started a game since June 6, 2012, in Game 6 of the Western Conference semifinals against the Oklahoma City Thunder. The Spurs lost the series that night. ... Since the adoption of the 2-3-2 format in 1985, the home team has won the last two games only twice. ... Neither the Heat nor the Spurs have lost consecutive games in this postseason.