5 times Manu Ginobili made us believe in miracles

3. Game 7 — 2005 NBA Finals

It’s hard to pinpoint one Manu Ginobili moment from his second NBA championship. In fact, the entire Game 7 could be viewed as one giant “moment” for him.

In 2005, the San Antonio Spurs entered the Western Conference Playoffs as a second seed behind the formidable powerhouse Suns team that featured the tandem of Amar’e Stoudemire and MVP Steven Nash.

After dispatching the Suns in only five games in the Western Conference Finals, the Spurs were next faced with the task of beating the Detroit Pistons, a team looking to repeat as NBA champions.

The Pistons, who resembled that “Bad Boy” version that dominated the league in the late 80’s and early 90’s, featured the defensively sound Ben Wallace and the nasty Rasheed Wallace.
Ginobili who still had hair similar to Steve Nash, was instrumental in giving the Spurs the edge towards the end of a Game 7 that eventually led to another NBA title for the Spurs.

Ginobili finished that game playing 35 minutes and scoring 23 points. After a tightly contested game, Ginobili hit a shot from behind the arc with three minutes remaining, increasing the Spurs lead by seven.

With 35 seconds remaining and San Antonio leading 73-68, Manu drove to the basket and scored on a beautiful layup.

With only 22 seconds remaining, he drained two free throws to keep the Spurs up 77-71.
He would then sink two more shots from the charity stripe that would keep the game out of reach for Detroit.

With confetti falling on San Antonio’s home court and the crowd going wild, Ginobili was captured embracing Popovich with a hug, lifting him off the ground as both smiled from ear to ear. Ginobili was influential in putting away Detroit and without that strong Game 7 performance, Detroit may have repeated as NBA champions.