SAN ANTONIO – Manu Ginobili has seen a lot on the court during his career with the Spurs, but there are still some things that amaze the 15-year veteran.
Add Kawhi Leonard’s game-winning sequence during Monday night’s victory over Houston to that list.
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Leonard hit a contested 3-pointer over Houston center Nene with 24 seconds left to give the Spurs a 110-108 lead, then came down the court to block James Harden’s game-tying layup attempt.
Leonard then grabbed that rebound and hit two pressure free throws to close the game.
TV cameras caught Ginobili’s reaction to Kawhi’s late-game heroics.
Ginobili put his hands to his head and had a look of disbelief. Ginobili then posted a picture of his reaction on his Instagram page with a post that read:
“When a teammate does in 20 seconds when Kawhi did yesterday.”
The post had more than 33,000 likes and 240 comments by Tuesday morning.
Manu Ginobili's reaction to Kawhi Leonard's game winning shot, block vs. HOU goes viral. Pic, story here: https://t.co/OBjyM8WaC1 #KSATnews pic.twitter.com/Tttyvqmw1i
— RJ Marquez (@KSATRJ) March 7, 2017
Ginobili said after the game he was kind of in shock with the final sequence.
“That shot was crazy because he was contested. It’s a very tough shot to make and then getting that block with Harden coming full speed is very hard to do,” Ginobili said. “You have to be very gifted and he is.”
Ginobili has made several jaw-dropping plays of his own during his career, but in this case he was a spectator to Leonard’s big performance.
Leonard finished with 39 points, including 17 in the fourth quarter to lift the Spurs over the Rockets 112-110.
It was Leonard’s fourth straight 30-point plus game, and it squarely puts him in the league MVP conversation.