Manu Ginobili played only five games this season before breaking his left hand. He had been averaging 17 points, 4 rebounds, and 3 assists per game, and the Spurs were 3-2 in the games that their Argentinian superstar appeared. He had scored at least 23 points in three of those five games though, while only playing 13 minutes and scoring 8 before injuring his “lefty” in a loss, and when Manu did hit for 20+ his Spurs won each of those three times.
Since Manu’s been out, San Antonio has kept things more than respectable down there in Duncanville. They currently hold a 14-9 record overall after beating the Houston Rockets last night, and have moved into 1st place in the Western Conference’s Southwest Division as a result. It appears help is also on the way soon for those guys too.
As mentioned by the Bloguin site Project Spurs yesterday, Manu could be back in a couple weeks. This in response to the following Tweet that Ginobili posted to his Twitter account:
Project Spurs: While it has been great to see some other Spurs step up in his absence, I think the fans are ready to have their Argentinian superstar back, and we may be getting close. This is some great news for Spurs fans.
Manu is still probably a couple weeks away from returning though. Hopefully he’ll be back to full speed around the middle of the month. His original timetable was around 6 weeks. That would put his return at around February 13th. The Spurs are hoping Manu can come back during the 9-game Rodeo Road Trip, which would be huge considering all the struggles the Spurs have had on the road (3-8).
From there the next question is how effective Manu can actually be working that lefty of his back into playing shape. Me personally, I’m not betting against Manu Ginobili though. He’s proven how tough he is too many times, and I kinda think that if he’s healthy enough to get himself back onto the floor, he’ll find some way to put points on the board. Whether that’s using his right hand, left hand, bouncing it off his head, kicking it in with his knee, whatever. Dude just scores.
