"Hurts Like Hell"

That's what Gregg Popovich said, referring to last night's loss to the Lakers, but he might as well have been talking about Manu Ginobili.

Johnny Ludden writes:

[Manu Ginobili] had a long red scratch on his left shoulder, another on his waist, and one of the fingernails from his trusted shooting hand was missing, battle scars all. Each step toward the shower seemed to bring only more pain.

Brent Barry nicknamed Ginobili El Contusión because of nights like this, and that’s what has to concern the Spurs most about Wednesday. They’re strong enough to stomach wasting a 20-point lead in 18 minutes, but they won’t catch these Los Angeles Lakers if Ginobili’s body won’t let them.

Ginobili only would say he had “a couple of issues.” Among those issues: 10 missed shots and four turnovers. But Issue No. 1? Ginobili gave that away an hour before tip-off as he tried to stand on a rubber ball.

“What’s that for?” asked a foreign reporter.

“This is what you do,” Ginobili said, “when you have problems with your ankle.”

Ginobili jammed his left ankle in the opening game of the playoffs against the Phoenix Suns, and he hasn’t been the same since. Compensating for the injury also stressed his groin, but the sore ankle is what has lingered the most. Ginobili still has played brilliantly at times in these playoffs, scoring 29 and 31 points in separate games against the Suns and New Orleans Hornets. But each of those performances was preceded by two days of rest. Given only one day off between games, he’s averaging 14.4 points while shooting worse than 38 percent.

The bad news for Spurs fans is that every game in these Western Conference Finals will be separated by just one day off. Leave it to Manu Ginobili to defy the odds and have a few great games in this series, even if he hurts like hell.