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2017 NBA Playoffs

Spurs’ Manu Ginobili was a magician with both hands in huge Game 5 win

The 39-year-old showed off explosiveness to the rim and on defense

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    Houston Rockets v San Antonio Spurs – Game Five
    Manu Ginobili #20 of the San Antonio Spurs reacts during the game against the Houston Rockets during Game Five of the Western Conference Semifinals of the 2017 NBA Playoffs on May 9, 2017 at the AT&T Center in San Antonio, Texas. Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE via Getty Images
    Aaron Dodson By @aardodson

    Even Drake knows which of Manu Ginobili’s hands is his dominant one.

    I hit that Ginobili with my left hand up like woo! the Toronto artist raps on “Jumpman,” his 2015 quadruple-platinum hit collaboration with Future, in reference to the longtime San Antonio Spurs stalwart.

    Nearly two years later, the 39-year-old Ginobili is still making magic with that left hand up.

    In the closing seconds of the Spurs’ crucial 110-107 overtime win in Game 5 of the Western Conference semifinals, Houston Rockets superstar and NBA MVP candidate James Harden caught the ball on the wing and squared up to the basket with only a swarming Ginobili in his path.

    Harden made a move, but as he rose up for the potential game-tying 3-pointer, Ginobili swooped his left hand over the top of his head, blocking Harden’s shot with 0.3 seconds left to seal the victory and place the Spurs in the driver’s seat in the series. San Antonio is one win away from the Western Conference finals.

    “I know where his shot releases from, and he went by me. So I tried to bother him as much as I could, and I saw that I found myself very close to the ball, so I went for it,” Ginobili said of his play on Harden, who is notorious for drawing fouls on his opponents at the 3-point line. “Very risky. It was a risky play, but it was also risky to let him shoot, so I took my chances.”

    Woo, Drake would’ve been proud of that left! But don’t get it twisted — Ginobili is nice with his right hand, too.

    With 2:02 left in the first half, Ginobili gathered the ball at the top of the key and slashed to the basket, where he awkwardly jumped off his right foot and shifted in the air to throw down a fierce dunk with his off right hand on Houston’s Ryan Anderson.

    “The right-handed dunk on someone counts for three dunks for him,” Spurs big man LaMarcus Aldridge told ESPN’s Michael C. Wright after the game.

    “I don’t know if you saw that wrong-foot, right-handed dunk, but that’s one for the record books right there,” teammate Danny Green added.

    First, the right hand at the rim. Then, the left hand at the buzzer. While Ginobili might be the second-oldest player in the league (behind Vince Carter), he sure didn’t play like it in Game 5. Against Harden and the Rockets, the four-time NBA champion found the fountain of youth. Foreal, somebody check his birth certificate.

    Aaron Dodson is a sports and culture writer at Andscape. He primarily writes on sneakers/apparel and hosts the platform’s Sneaker Box video series. During Michael Jordan’s two seasons playing for the Washington Wizards in the early 2000s, the “Flint” Air Jordan 9s sparked his passion for kicks.

    This Story Tagged: NBA San Antonio Spurs Manu Ginobili 2017 NBA Playoffs