The San Antonio Spurs will be without one of their top players for the next few weeks after Manu Ginobili broke his left hand in Monday night’s 106-96 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves.

The injury occurred with 2:38 remaining in the first half when Timberwolves forward Anthony Tolliver tried to strip Ginobili of the ball as he attempted a shot from near the arc.

“I have the 5th metacarpal of my left hand fractured. I guess I’ll miss a few weeks. Sad day 4 me,” Ginobili tweeted after the game on his account, @manuginobili.

X-rays taken at the arena confirmed the break, according to the San Antonio Express-News. The two-time All-Star will be examined in San Antonio on Tuesday.

Ginobili leads the Spurs in scoring this season at 17.4 points per game and was shooting a team-high 59 percent from the field.

”It’s going to be tough for us because he was playing at an All-Star
level,” said point guard Tony Parker, who had 11 points and nine
assists. ”And now we’re going to have to have everybody pick it up.”

The Spurs will get over the loss to Minnesota quickly. The loss of Ginobili could linger for a while.

The
team’s leading scorer is the emotional and fiery center of this proud,
veteran team. With Tim Duncan getting older and having his minutes limited
to save him for the postseason, the offense revolves around Ginobili’s
perimeter shooting and slashing to the basket.

”Manu is pretty important to us and we lost him,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. ”We’ll just have to deal with it.”

”He means a lot to the team,” said James
Anderson, who figures to get a lot of the playing time in Ginobili’s
absence. ”He’s one of the biggest plusses to the team. Without him we
lose a lot of stuff, and that’s on both ends.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

January 2, 2012 – NBA Development League (D-League)
NEW YORK, Jan. 2, 2012 – The San Antonio Spurs assigned guard Gary Neal to the Austin Toros, the Spurs’ NBA D-League affiliate, it was announced today. The assignments mark the tenth time in the 2011-12 season an NBA player has been assigned to an NBA D-League affiliate. It marks the first assignment for Neal.

Neal (6-4, 210) is in his second season with the Spurs and was named to the 2010-11 NBA All-Rookie First Team. Undrafted out of Towson, Neal appeared in 80 games last season averaging 9.8 points while shooting .451 from the field, .419 from three-point range, and .808 from the free throw line. He has not played this season for the Spurs after undergoing a successful appendectomy last month.

• Discuss this story on the NBA Development League message board…

• Digg this story

• Add to Del.icio.us

• San Antonio Spurs Assign Gary Neal to NBA D-League Affiliate Austin Toros – D-League

• Washington Wizards Assign Hamady N’Diaye to Iowa Energy – Iowa Energy

• Sacramento Kings Assign Honeycutt and Whiteside to Reno – D-League

• Sacramento Kings Assign Honeycutt, Whiteside to Bighorns – Reno Bighorns

The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

The 2012 San Antonio Spurs schedule continues into January when the team plays 18 games in a 29-day span. The Spurs open the month on Monday, Jan. 2, against the Minnesota Timberwolves before coming home for a nice three-game stand. Some of the more notable games include a Jan. 8 match-up against the Oklahoma City Thunder and then a game against the Miami heat on Jan. 17. The team went 3-1 in December games and looks to continue doing well in the Southwest division standings as the only team above .500 so far.

January 2012 San Antonio Spurs Schedule

Monday, Jan. 2

San Antonio Spurs at Minnesota Timberwolves, 7 p.m. CT

Wednesday, Jan. 4

Golden State Warriors at San Antonio, 7:30 p.m. CT

Thursday, Jan. 5

Dallas Mavericks at San Antonio, 7:30 p.m. CT

Saturday, Jan. 7

Denver Nuggets at San Antonio, 7:30 p.m. CT

Sunday, Jan. 8

San Antonio at Oklahoma City Thunder, 6 p.m. CT

Tuesday, Jan. 10

San Antonio at Milwaukee Bucks, 7 p.m. CT

Wednesday, Jan. 11

Houston Rockets at San Antonio, 7:30 p.m. CT

Friday, Jan. 13

Portland Trail Blazers at San Antonio, 7:30 p.m. CT

Sunday, Jan. 15

Phoenix Suns at San Antonio, 8 p.m. CT

Tuesday, Jan. 17

San Antonio at Miami Heat, 6:30 p.m. CT

Wednesday, Jan. 18

San Antonio at Orlando Magic, 6 p.m. CT

Friday, Jan. 20

Sacramento Kings at San Antonio, 7:30 p.m. CT

Saturday, Jan. 21

San Antonio at Houston, 7 p.m. CT

Monday, Jan. 23

San Antonio at New Orleans Hornets, 7 p.m. CT

Wednesday, Jan. 25

Atlanta Hawks at San Antonio, 7:30 p.m. CT

Friday, Jan. 27

San Antonio at Minnesota, 7 p.m. CT

Sunday, Jan. 29

San Antonio at Dallas, 5:30 p.m. CT

Monday, Jan. 30

San Antonio at Memphis Grizzlies, 7 p.m. CT

Source:

Spurs Main Site

Note: This article was written by a Yahoo! contributor. Sign up here to start publishing your own sports content.

Tim Duncan said he isn’t going to stop shooting despite his struggles from
the floor. A busy week will provide him with a lot of opportunities to get
things going.

Duncan and the San Antonio Spurs look to win their 17th straight over the
Minnesota Timberwolves on Monday night.

While San Antonio will play two sets of back-to-back games later this week,
the Spurs (3-1) have a chance to begin the stretch on a favorable note against
Minnesota. They have won 16 in a row over the Timberwolves since a 103-101
overtime loss Jan. 3, 2007, on the road.

San Antonio is coming off a 104-89 victory over Utah on Saturday, going 10
of 16 from 3-point range while holding the Jazz to 37.1 percent shooting.

Manu Ginobili scored 23 points, DeJuan Blair had 17 and 10 rebounds and Tony
Parker added 14 points and eight assists.

The performance seemed to lend credence to coach Gregg Popovich’s approach
in a 105-85 loss to Houston on Thursday. Popovich, who recorded his 800th career
victory against the Jazz, pulled his veterans early and said he’s willing to do
that again in order to keep his veterans fresh during the compact schedule.

Though the Spurs starters looked rested against Utah, Duncan’s shooting
struggles continued.

After playing less than 16 minutes against the Rockets, Duncan finished with
12 points on 4-of-13 shooting Saturday, although he seemed to get things going
late. He was 1 of 7 from the field in the first half.

“Getting just about every shot I want, just can’t put them in the hole,” he
said. “But I’m going to stick with it and hopefully down the stretch or the next
couple of games I can get it going.”

While San Antonio swept the four-game series against Minnesota last season,
one went into overtime and two others were decided by a combined nine points.
The Spurs could be in for another tough one against the Timberwolves (1-3) on
Monday.

Kevin Love finished with 25 points and 17 boards in a 99-82 win over Dallas
on Sunday for Minnesota’s first win.

Although the Timberwolves had lost 18 straight dating back to last season,
their first three losses in 2011-12 were by a combined nine points.

“It’s a new year,” said Love, who hit 5 of 6 from 3-point range. “We’re the
best team in 2012 right now. We feel good. We’ve got the monkey off our back.”

Love was a big factor in keeping Minnesota’s games against San Antonio close
last season, averaging 23.8 points and 19.3 rebounds.

Besides defending Love, San Antonio will have to keep its eye on rookie
Ricky Rubio, particularly late in games.

Rubio, the fifth overall pick in the 2009 draft, scored a season-high 14
points and had seven assists against Dallas on Sunday. He scored seven points in
the fourth quarter, playing all 12 minutes.

Twenty-one of his 38 points have come in the final quarter, when Rubio has
gone 7 for 10 with 14 assists.

“I worked a lot this summer on shooting jump shots and all the stuff. When
you work hard, things (are) coming,” he said.

The Timberwolves could be without Michael Beasley after he injured his index
finger.

SAN ANTONIO, Dec. 31 (UPI) — Manu Ginobili sank five 3-pointers and DeJuan Blair provided a double-double Saturday in the San Antonio Spurs’ 104-89 win over Utah.

Ginobili finished with 23 points, while Blair added 17 and 10 rebounds for the Spurs, who logged their third win in four games to start the season.

Tony Parker contributed 14 points and eight assists.

The Spurs got 12 points and nine rebounds from Tim Duncan in the victory.

The Jazz were led by Al Jefferson’s 21 points and 11 rebounds.

Josh Howard added a spark off the bench with 18 points and seven boards, but it wasn’t enough for Utah.