By George Efkarpides / info@eurohoops.net
The 40-year-old Ginobili scored 10 of his 16 points in the fourth quarter to help San Antonio beat the Golden State Warriors 103-90. The Spurs avoided a series sweep as Popovich missed his second straight game following the death of his wife, Erin, on Wednesday.
Messina and Ginobili won a EuroLeague championship in 2001 with Virtus Bologna, and both soaked up the latest triumph with reverence.
“At moments, when he talks to the rest of the team or he gets upset and yells at us, a lot of flashbacks,” Ginobili said. “Whenever we stop executing the way we should have, his old self-comes back. So, it was good to see him coaching on this stage. Good memories.”
French star Tony Parker delivered 9 points off the bench while Spaniard Pau Gasol added 5 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists.
The Washington Wizards tied at the series 2-2 with a 106-98 win over the Toronto Raptors. The “Polish Hammer”, Marcin Gortat was solid once again with 12 points and six boards. French center Ian Mahinmi added four points and three rebounds, while Czech guard Tomas Satoransky had one rebound.
Lithuanian center, Jonas Valanciunas only played 15 minutes and ended up with 11 points while Spanish forward Serge Ibaka had seven points and 10 boards for the losing side. Austrian Jakob Poeltl had 10 points and seven rebounds.
The Cavaliers beat the Pacers 104-100 in Indiana to tie the series 2-2.
Spanish veteran Jose Calderon drew the start and had 5 points, 2 boards and 2 assists. Lithuanian big-man, Domantas Sabonis had 19 points and six boards off the bench for Indiana while Croatian wing Bojan Bogdanovic ended up with 10 points and six rebounds.
Earlier in the day, the Milwaukee got the win over Boston to tie the series at two a piece.
Here are last night’s results and the euro-scorers:
| MILWAUKEE BUCKS | BOSTON CELTICS | 104-102 | Antetokounmpo 27 p. 7 r. 5 a. |
| SAN ANTONIO SPURS | GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS | 103-90 | Gasol 5 p. 5 r. 4 a. 1 b., Parker 9 p. 2 a. |
| WASHINGTON WIZARDS | TORONTO RAPTORS | 106-98 | Gortat 12 p. 6 r. 1 a. 1 s., Mahinmi 4 p. 3 4. 2 b., Satoransky 1 r. – Valanciunas 11 p. 3 r. 1 b., Ibaka 7 p. 10 r. 1 s. 2 b., Poeltl 109 p. 7 r. 1 a. 1 s. |
| INDIANA PACERS | CLEVELAND CAVALIERS | 104-100 | Calderon 5 p. 2 r. 2 a. – Bogdanovic 10 p. 6 r. 2 a., Sabonis 19 p. 6 r. |