Manu Ginobili leaves with leg injury, questionable for Spurs next game in OKC

Late in the first quarter of the Spurs’ win over the Celtics on Saturday, Manu Ginobili went down hard after colliding with Boston’s Chris Wilcox.

The injury was reported to be a contusion to the left quadriceps, and Ginobili did not return.

His status is up in the air for the team’s next game, a trip to Oklahoma City to face Kevin Durant and the Thunder.

From Mike Monroe of the San Antonio Express-News:

Ginobili’s availability for Monday’s road game against the Oklahoma City Thunder is not known, but Spurs coach Gregg Popovich did not sound optimistic.

“He got a thigh contusion just above his knee,” Popovich said, “and one would think he is going to be stiffer than hell tomorrow. It’s hard to believe he’d be ready day after tomorrow for Oklahoma, but I’m not sure.”

Given Popovich’s propensity for holding players out of games just because, don’t expect to see Ginobili back on the court until there are no lingering effects from the injury, and he’s back to 100 percent.

As an aside, the folks at NESN — who cover the Celtics — blame Ginobili’s flopping history for the injury, and claim that the blame is as much on him as it is on Wilcox for sustaining an injury on the play. They even have an animated GIF showing Ginobili going down on an endless loop, because, obviously, injuries are hilarious.

Ginobili didn’t “suffer the injury while flopping.” He may have exaggerated the contact a small amount, but I would imagine colliding with Wilcox at high speed like that might be problematic for just about anyone. And, this flop that they claim happened wouldn’t even come close to registering on the league’s radar as a violation of the new rules against such actions.

Cover your team in a positive way, and rip players who truly flop to attempt to gain an advantage. But gloating or mocking an opponent on a play where he is injured is as immature as it gets.