Ginobili suffers strained oblique

[Teagz]

pbt:

Manu Ginobili suffered a strained oblique muscle against the Clippers Saturday, the Spurs announced after the game. There is no timetable for his return, and further diagnostic tests are planned.

Ginobili only recently returned from a fractured bone in his hand. He’s played spectacularly well, so the Spurs will miss him, but at the same time, their win over the Clippers in overtime Saturday marked their tenth straight, the majority without Ginobili. They’re made to weather his absence, but it’s still an unfortunate turn of events. Ginobili’s absence in the first round of the playoffs last season against the Grizzlies contributed heavily to their exit.

In reality, the Spurs needed a rather fortuitous turn of events involving a rare clutch time turnover from Chris Paul to steal the victory. An errant inbounds pass from Rasual Butler resulted in a turnover straight to Gary Neal, who calmly drained a three to tie the game and send it to overtime. That was the good luck for the Spurs.

Losing their second-best player for an extended period of time (Tony Parker gets top honors currently) was the bad. They also lost Tiago Splitter to a strained hamstring.

After the game, Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich told reporters that the Spurs head “lost him again for a while.” There are further diagnostic tests planned to determine the severity of the injury and establish a timetable. We’ll keep you updated.

 

[jonathanlambert33]

Saw this when I was watching the game. He never played in the fourth.

 

[jonathanlambert33]

After Adrian Wojnarowski reported that Manu Ginobili would miss two weeks due to his strained oblique, coach Gregg Popovich said that he would be out "several weeks" during Monday's pregame media availability. Perhaps this is semantics and the two week timetable is still in play, but we're not going to bank on it after this report. The shooting guard position hasn't held any real value while Ginobili has been out in the past, so we're not counting on anything to change this time around.