Manu of the house
Ginobili 3 keeps C’s on San Antonio skid
SAN ANTONIO — The day before, it had snowed here for the first time in 28 years, but another streak just wouldn’t end.
The Celtics still haven’t won in the Spurs’ gym since March 31, 2011. The run moved to six straight setbacks last night, but not until Kyrie Irving’s 3-pointer from the right corner made a full tour of the rim in the final second.
Irving, playing the final night with his mask to protect a facial fracture, had 36 points, but 40-year-old Manu Ginobili hung a 105102 loss on the Celts on a second-chance trey with five seconds left after he’d rebounded a Rudy Gay miss.
Down by two, Jayson Tatum hit a 3-pointer from the right corner with 2:37 left. Gay gave the lead back to the hosts by converting an offensive rebound. Irving gave the C’s a 102-100 edge with a top-of-the-key trey, but LaMarcus Aldridge backed in on Al Horford to tie it with 1:32 to go.
A few moments later, Ginobili matched his first-half buzzer-beating 3-pointer with another dagger.
“I mean, the two plays Manu made at the end of the half and the end of the game were vintage Manu,” said Brad Stevens. “I said before the game he’s one of the best players at the end of quarters I’ve ever seen, and now I wish I wouldn’t have said it.
“We did a great job of guarding him. Al (Horford) went out and challenged high. Jayson (Tatum) tried to push him over the screen and kept him in his hand, and then Al challenged that. That’s hat tip to Ginobili. That’s all that is. That’s great defense.”
Said Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, “Manu, like he told me a lot of years ago, ‘This is what I do.’ He’s amazing. He loves those moments.”
The bucket gave Ginobili 11 points for the night, and the Celts looked to the guy who had 25 more in this one. They went to inbound on the right sideline in their end of the floor after a timeout. They had to call another TO on the first try, but got the more than reasonable look from Irving, who’d made six of his first seven treys before being unable to get and of his last three to go.
“Thought it was cash money,” said Irving, who had 17 points in the first quarter. “Thought it was going to hit the bottom of the net. Obviously I didn’t put enough on it. Good play-call. Just happens. We’re going to replay it for like about 33 more minutes, then I’ll be over it.”
“It’s hard to get a look in that time frame,” said Stevens. “They covered us up really well on the first play, and Kyrie made a great cut and Jaylen (Brown) screened well. You can’t get a better look than that with that time. But, you know, it wasn’t to be.”
The Celts had lost the lead they carried to the final split second of the first half and were falling into a familiar San Antonio trance. The Spurs were beating them with fundamentals and — oh, yeah — talent, going ahead by what seemed like a solid six points that was destined for greater heights.
But Brown, donning goggles after a contact lens irritated his right eye two days before, began finding success from close range. close range.
He got inside for a dunk to start the rally, and Horford followed with a short turnaround. Irving hit a second-chance trey, and Marcus Smart lobbed to Brown for another jam. The Celts missed their first three shots on their next possession, but Brown (10 points in the period) made it all right with an authoritative tip-slam that completed an 11-0 run to a 78-73 lead.
“I had my eyes closed when I dunked it,” said Brown. “I just jumped, and kind of the goggles were in the way. I couldn’t see the ball. And then I just closed my eyes and made a play.”
It was 82-77 after three, and of course the Spurs had a counterpunch. They opened the fourth with an 11-2 spurt, but Irving drove for a three-point play, and soon the sides were engaged in a tug-o-war.
“You have to play so well for all 48,” said Stevens after the C’s slipped to 22-5. “We just had too many empty possessions, and they found multiple times throughout the game where they were really in a rhythm of scoring. We just couldn’t break it, and it was the difference in the game.
“Obviously we started off shooting the ball well (59.1 percent in the first quarter), but I thought for the better part of the first half they really dominated. And I thought we were fortunate to be down one at halftime. And then after that it was probably too back and forth. You need to be able to get some stops a little bit better than we did.”