Get your Manu Ginobili fix
No, Manu Ginobili didn’t play in the San Antonio Spurs disappointing loss to the New Jersey Nets last night. But luckily, Zach Lowe at CelticsHub.com has a great video breakdown of how the Celtics defended Manu on pick-and-roll situations in the Spurs 94-73 win on Sunday night.
The C’s have a pretty standard way of defending screen/rolls: The guy guarding the ball-handler (this is usually Rajon Rondo) fights over the screen while the big man guarding the screener either slides over to cut off penetration or jumps out to try and force the ball-handler away from the basket while Rondo recovers from the screen.
To my eyes, the C’s approach with Ginobili was essentially a super-exaggerated version of this. As soon as the man guarding Manu knew a screen was coming, he would jump to one side of the screener, positioning himself almost perpendicular to Ginobili. The idea, it appeared, was to force Ginobili the other direction, where the man guarding the screener had already sagged back to cut off penetration.
This is great stuff from Zach and gives you a pretty good idea of what the Spurs were lacking on Monday night against the Nets. There’s no word on whether or not Manu will play against Houston on Wednesday night, though my guess is that he’ll be ready.
