ORLANDO, Fla. — After spending the past five days receiving treatment on his bruised right ankle, Manu Ginobili returned to the floor Monday — and promptly hurt his left knee.
Ginobili suffered his knee-on-knee collision less than three minutes into the game. Spurs coach Gregg Popovich briefly replaced him with Michael Finley, but Ginobili returned and finished with four points, four assists and three rebounds in 21 minutes.
"When you're already (compensating) for one leg and you hurt the other, that makes it more difficult," Ginobili said with a laugh. "None of (the injuries) are serious, but, of course, we have to be careful. I don't want to take three steps back."
Ginobili thought his biggest problem Monday was that he played too tentative.
"I was being too cautious to play my game," he said.
Ginobili picked up his first points when Tony Parker found him near the basket for a reverse layup. He also helped slow Orlando's fourth-quarter comeback with a pair of free throws after driving into the lane.
"I thought the he was a little antsy in the first half," Popovich said. "In the second half, he took his time and let the game come to him a lot more. I thought he was getting into form in the second half."
After the game, Ginobili returned to the court to participate in a live TV broadcast by Fox Sports that honored him as the Latin American Athlete of the Year.
