SAN ANTONIO — Manu Ginobili darted and slashed, leaned and launched, pivoted and passed and did all those odd and clever little things that have defined him for more than a decade. The things Ginobili has always done. The things Ginobili seemed unable to do anymore.
With N.B.A. finals down to a best-of-three affair, and control up for grabs Sunday night, the San Antonio Spurs placed their faith in the one pillar of their Big 3 who had yet to join the series. Ginobili returned to the starting lineup and promptly returned to form, scoring 24 points and adding 10 assists to lead the Spurs to a 114-104 victory over the Miami Heat.
Ginobili had scored just 30 points in the first four games of the series, looking older than his 35 years would suggest. The longtime sixth man looked closer to retirement than championship glory.
But Coach Gregg Popovich gave Ginobili his first start of the season, placing him alongside Tim Duncan and Tony Parker once more, and suddenly it looked like 2007 again.
Duncan had 17 points and 12 rebounds. Parker had 26 points. LeBron James and Dwyane Wade each scored 25 for the Heat.
The Spurs are now one victory from their fifth championship, their fourth in the Duncan-Parker-Ginobili era, as the series returns to Miami for Game 6 and, if necessary a Game 7.
To repeat as champions, the Heat now have to do what neither team has done in this series: Win two in a row.
The Heat fell behind by 17 points in the second quarter and spent most of the night trying to claw their way back. They sliced the deficit to 75-74 late in the third quarter, and for a moment appeared poised to seize control. But Danny Green, the breakout star of this series, 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.
“Once we got it back to 1, we felt that we had weathered the storm,” Heat Coach Erik Spoelstra said. “Then we missed a couple shots that we normally are accustomed to making.” He added, “We just didn’t show the mental resolve that we needed to at that point.”
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 briefly cut the deficit to 13 points, but Duncan, Ginobili and Parker combined for a flurry of baskets, and soon Parker was being serenaded with chants of “M-V-P.”
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.
The Heat had alternated wins and losses for 11 straight games, a trend that began in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals and had become, for them, a little maddening. This is, after all, the team that won 27 straight in the regular season.
“Enough is enough,” James had said, practically demanding a Game 5 victory.
“Our mind-set is right now,” James said before tipoff. “We have a great opportunity, and we’re looking forward to the challenge.”
Yet the Spurs surged to a 17-point lead in the first half and never relented, leading wire to wire.
Green hit another six 3-pointers, pushing his series total to 25, and breaking the finals record held by the Heat’s Ray Allen. Allen hit 22 3-pointers for Boston in the 2008 finals.
The decision to start Ginobili and bench Tiago Splitter was, on the most basic level, a response to Miami’s downsizing its lineup in Game 4. The Spurs needed another guard on the floor. It was also perhaps a move to snap Ginobili out of his funk. And 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.
Ginobili, Parker and Duncan combined for 35 points in the first half. James, Wade and Bosh scored 40 of Miami’s 52 points. But the Spurs got more support from their reserves and shot 61.8 percent from the field and led by as many as 17 points.
It took some time for the Heat’s stars to get untracked, but they answered with a fury — with James driving and dunking and Allen converting a 4-point play in a 12-0 run. The Heat got as close as 5 points but went into halftime down by 61-52.
The two-day break between Games 4 and 5 was surely good for everyone’s health — for Parker’s hamstring and Wade’s knee and for all the old, aching limbs on the Spurs’ roster. But not, apparently, for anyone’s mental health.
“This time of year, waiting is like death,” Popovich said before tipoff. “You want to go play.”
Ginobili hit 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.
Parker — his strained hamstring apparently sturdy — picked up the offense from there, scoring 7 points in a 12-0 run as the Spurs took a 29-17 lead. This was the Spurs as we knew them in 2003, 2005 and 2007 — Parker penetrating, Ginobili slashing and creating, Duncan finishing.
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.
Visit Source: NYT > Global Home http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/17/sports/spurs-pull-away-from-heat-and-seize-control.html?partner=rss&emc=rss