It’s Easter Sunday here in the AT&T Center as the San Antonio Spurs (55-17) and the Miami Heat (57-15) are preparing to duel in a matchup that displays the best two teams by record in both conferences.
While the Heat will be resting two of their stars in LeBron James and Dwayne Wade and a role player in Mario Chalmers for rest-affiliated reasons, the Spurs will have one member of their “Big 3” sitting on the sideline for a much different reason.
In his pregame interview, Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich said guard Manu Ginobili will be out for weeks with his right hamstring injury that he suffered on Friday against the Los Angeles Clippers.
“It’s more than days,” said Popovich, “it’s more like weeks.”
Popovich said he doesn’t know yet if Ginobili’s injury will keep him out until the NBA playoffs in three weeks, but said the injury will really affect the Spurs’ second unit and team as a whole.
“It’s a tough one for us. It’s an unfortunate loss.”
Getting to a lighter point in the interview, when Popovich was informed that the
Heat would be resting two of their stars, he hysterically fell back and said, “What kind of shit is that? What a bunch of rummies.”
Coach Pop also jokingly said it was a “below the belt” type of move. However he did agree that it is hard for any team to bring the same focus when they know a team is missing some of its stars.
“It happens all the time in the NBA,” said Popovich of teams letting down against starless opponents.
However, Popovich did say his team would need to be ready for the Heat that will be in uniform.
“I totally expect them to give us a hell of a game,” concluded Popovich of the Heat.
