The San Antonio Spurs suffered a major setback Monday night as All-Star guard Manu Ginobli broke a bone in his right hand and is expected to be out for four to six weeks. It happened midway through the second quarter and was the turning point in the game, as the Spurs lost their defensive focus and ultimately could not keep up with Minnesota’s hot shooting, losing the game 106-96.

The loss of Ginobli is a huge blow to the Spurs who had centered their entire offense around the multi-talented Argentinian this year. The Spurs medical staff reported he had broken the fifth metatarsal bone on his shooting hand and is expected to be out 4-6 weeks.

His absence obviously means more minutes for younger players like James Anderson and TJ Ford, but also means a major revamping of the offensive scheme. No Ginobli also throws a monkey-wrench in Coach Pop’s long-tern plan to keep down the playing time of his veteran players like Tim Duncan and Tony Parker, who are now almost certainly going to have to log more minutes in order for the Spurs to stay competitive.

Beating San Antonio the night after they broke their 18-game losing streak is a major accomplishment for the Timberwolves. That kind of emotional resilience demonstrates that the Rick Adelman system is already taking hold in Minnesota and augurs well for the talented young team.

The Timberwolves started off hot and dominated the first quarter 35-25. The Spurs responded to the loss of Ginobli in the second, and cut it to a seven point lead at half. But the Timberwolves shooting remained hot, and eventually proved too much for the Spurs as they coasted to a 10 point win with both teams looking tired in the fourth.

The Spurs were led by Tim Duncan and Richard Jefferson with 16 each. Tony Parker with 11 and Tiago Splitter with 12 points were the only other Spurs in double figures. Minnesota Forward Kevin love continued his breakout year, with 24 points and 15 rebounds. Luke Ridenour also chipped in 19 points and 9 assists. Ricky Rubio had an off night with just six points and three assists.

San Antonio moves to 3-2 on the season with the loss. The Spurs have Tuesday off and then travel to California to play the Golden State Warriors on Wednesday night.

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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.

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

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San Antonio • The Jazz’s locker-room door opened Saturday night and C.J. Miles sat hunched down in a chair, studying a box score, while Paul Millsap eyed rows of statistics over his teammates’ shoulder.

Utah had fallen 104-89 to the San Antonio Spurs. The Jazz shot just 37.1 percent from the floor, 12.5 percent behind the 3-point line, distributed only 11 assists and scored 21 points or less in the first three quarters.

With 9 minutes, 52 seconds left in the fourth, Utah (1-3) was down by 27 points and the team’s third blowout in four games to start the 2011-12 campaign was already in the books.

But what wasn’t in the box score were words such as effort, energy and communication. They were the same problems that plagued the Jazz during back-to-back road embarrassments to open the season. And they were the exact issues Utah coach Tyrone Corbin hammered home after watching San Antonio (3-1) run the Jazz out of the AT&T Center via a 20-8 second-quarter run that featured 11 consecutive points from Manu Ginobili, who scored a game-high 23 and drilled 5 of 6 3s.

Al Jefferson led Utah with a team-high 21 points and 11 rebounds, while reserve Josh Howard added 18 points and seven boards.

Corbin knows this will be an at times rough, at times joyous season for the Jazz. Utah’s young and rebuilding, but still trying to win games with veterans such as Devin Harris, Millsap and Jefferson. As a result, unpredictability will rein.

But the one thing Corbin’s squad can control is its nightly effort. And after seeing the Jazz lose three games by an average of 19 points – all featuring big-time, game-changing runs by the victors – consistent effort could be the one trait that keeps Utah moving forward even if defeats pile up.

“We need to keep searching for who we are. We just need to make sure we understand that we need to keep working to get better,” said Corbin, who kept the locker room closed longer than normal for the second game in the three contests.

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He added: “We just need to make sure the guys understand that it’s a long season. We need to stay together and work.”

Sticking together was again a familiar postgame refrain. Reserve forward Derrick Favors said it’s the Jazz’s primary problem when on-the-court play falls apart, while veteran backup point guard Earl Watson said Utah’s shown a tendency to cave when it falls behind on the road.

The Jazz have trailed by double-digits in all four games this season, and Utah had to come back from 13 points down Friday to knock off Philadelphia at home.

“We’re a different team on the road. It’s obvious, for whatever reason,” Watson said. “But you can’t sit there and look for the reason why. You have to look for the reason how to win on the road. First, we’ve got to start getting close.”

The Spurs made that goal almost impossible. San Antonio ran a shooting clinic during the first half, burning Utah on rotations that left the Jazz’s perimeter naked and allowed the Spurs to drain 80 percent (8 of 10) of their 3s.

After Utah was lifted by its youth movement Friday, Saturday was a replay of blowouts to the: poor defense, a methodical and lethargic offense, and energy that occasionally spurted but never became in vogue.

Now, the Jazz return to Salt Lake City staring at a cushion of 12 of 15 January games at EnergySolutions Arena. But two months of brutal road travel follows, and Corbin’s more concerned with his team’s progress and evolution than random home wins.

“It’s going to be up and down for a while until we get [settled],” he said. “It’s just not the way that you lose games – it means something the way we play in a losing ballgame. For the most part, the 48-minute effort that we’re looking for, we haven’t gotten in the losses.”

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