Miami Heat: Manu Ginobili’s 3 best games against the team

November 11, 2004

In just his third season in San Antonio, Ginobili was competing for his second NBA title.

For the half-decade prior, the Spurs were already perennial champion contenders, winning no fewer than 53 games between 1999 and 2005.

Already stacked with competent role players like Stephen Jackson, Bruce Bowen and Robert Horry – not to mention future Hall of Famers David Robinson, Tim Duncan and Tony Parker – Ginobili’s presence was minimal in the Spurs’ run in 2003.

By 2004-05 however, Ginobili had found his niche. Head coach Gregg Popovich built on Ginobili’s success as a sixth man, adding to his nightly workload 10 more minutes per game than his rookie season.

The season would be most remembered as the year the Argentinian set his career-high – 48 points against the Spurs’ frequent rival, the Phoenix Suns in January. But two months earlier, while his all-time performance was still brewing, Ginobili had a memorable game against Miami.

To start the season, the Heat won their first four games, three of which came in double digits. A year before Miami’s championship run and the team was already shaping up to be a contender, with a newly acquired Shaquille O’Neal at its helm.

However, Ginobili and the Spurs had different plans, instead capitalizing on Miami’s first loss of the season to the Dallas Mavericks.

While O’Neal and Duncan battled on the low block, Ginobili worked his magic on the wings. His 29 points that night marked the third time in his three-year career that he’d shoot at least 80 percent from 3, on a minimum of five attempts.

Adding to the madness, Ginobili tallied a game-high seven assists and seven rebounds, in what would become the Spurs’ fourth win during their 2005 NBA championship run.