SAN ANTONIO — So getting back to what Kobe Bryant was saying Saturday about Manu Ginobili missing some easy shots …
Ginobili actually is hitting some pretty tough ones now. He is 5 of 6 from 3-point range and 7 of 11 overall from the field, and his 22 points have lifted the Spurs to a healthy halftime lead. The Lakers got unraveled at the offensive end in the face of Ginobili’s crowd-inspiring shooting — despite Bryant at one point yelling in a Lakers timeout not to let one guy’s hot streak cause them to lose focus. Bryant even grabbed a clipboard to diagram solutions for Sasha Vujacic, whose defense against Ginobili in the first two games had been heralded by some.
Vujacic has never been a defensive stopper in his career, yet Phil Jackson is using him that way against Ginobili in this series. But after scoring one difficult layup over Tim Duncan for a 30-30 tie, Vujacic clearly was distracted by his success on that play and inexplicably stayed back on Ginobili at the other end. Ginobili used the space to fire in another 3-pointer, this one 7:43 before halftime — Vujacic tapped his chest to acknowledge his mistake — and the Lakers never pulled even again the rest of the half.
