Spurs season ends, and questions begin – starting with Ginobili

With 2:54 left in the fourth quarter of a lost cause Monday night, the big screen at the AT&T Center showed Manu Ginobili walking onto the floor after a timeout.

The crowd erupted into a standing ovation.

When he returned to the bench again 29 seconds later, perhaps for the final time in a Spurs uniform, the crowd erupted again.

That’s when Ginobili whispered the best-kept secret in San Antonio to the player seated next to him.

“I asked him, ‘I don’t know what these guys are giving you a standing ovation for,’ ” Patty Mills said. “And he said, ‘Yeah, I’m coming back for three more years.’ ”

This was a joke between unlikely friends, a 28-year-old Australian and 39-year-old Argentine who forged a lifelong alliance on the global Spurs.

In truth, Ginobili walked off the floor after the Spurs’ 129-115 season-ending loss to power-packed Golden State and into a future more uncertain than that.

He might be back for a 16^th NBA season, he insists. Then again, he might not.

“I always wanted to let it sink in for three weeks, four weeks, whatever,” Ginobili said. “Then I will sit with my wife and see how it feels.”

The Spurs have been here before, on the precipice of perhaps losing a legend.

A year ago, Tim Duncan walked out of Oklahoma City’s Chesapeake Energy Arena and into retirement.

Kevin Durant was present for that ouster, as he was again Monday to help the Warriors complete a sweep of the outmatched Spurs.

Durant scored 29 points with 12 rebounds to lift his new team to its third consecutive NBA Finals, teaming with Stephen Curry – who scored 36 points – to give Golden State a one-two punch few in the league can match.

The Spurs certainly couldn’t. The series officially ended Monday, in the third losing sweep of the Gregg Popovich era, but became a foregone conclusion eight days earlier in Oakland when Kawhi Leonard stepped on Zaza Pachulia and hobbled out of the series.

Without Leonard – and Tony Parker, who was lost for the season in the previous round – the Spurs didn’t have the arsenal to compete with the star-loaded Warriors.

“You go to war with a bat,” is how Ginobili described the feeling. “You can swing, swing, swing and maybe you’ll hit somebody. But it isn’t fair.”

The Spurs went to battle Monday with a gaggle of young players not far removed from winning a Summer League championship in Las Vegas – Jonathon Simmons and Kyle Anderson, Dejounte Murray and Bryn Forbes.

“It’s unfortunate how it went down for them,” said Mike Brown, Golden State’s acting coach. “They’re definitely an organization who will bounce back.”

In many ways, the Spurs’ first Duncan-less season in two decades was a success.

The Spurs won 61 games. They made the conference finals. They built a team that, internally, they believe could have given Golden State a series had their Leonard-bot not been rendered inoperable in Game 1.

There will be questions to answer this offseason, as there always are. In addition to Ginobili, Mills and Simmons will be free agents. Pau Gasol, David Lee and Dewayne Dedmon hold options to return.

It would not be surprising to see the Spurs return the bulk of this roster next season.

“To get here with so many new guys and so much new transition going on, it’s not a bad season,” said LaMarcus Aldridge, who capped a forgettable series by going 4 of 11. “I don’t think guys are satisfied with it. To get to the conference finals wasn’t our goal.”

Monday night belonged to Ginobili.

Sensing it could be Ginobili’s final game, coach Gregg Popovich inserted him into the starting lineup for the first time since 2014. The public address announcer introduced him last.

“It may or may not be the last game he ever plays in,” Popovich said. “I did not want to miss the opportunity to honor him in front of our home fans.”

Ginobili finished with 15 points and seven assists. He made half his shots. He looked like a man who could contribute to a title contender again on the other side of 40.

By the time Ginobili reached the bench for the final time, 18,466 fans were ready to hug him.

They dug deep into their greatest hits for chants:

“Man-u, Man-u!”

“One more year!”

They even reached back a decade to resurrect the old “Ole, Ole” serenade.

“It was like they wanted to me retire,” Ginobili said with a laugh.

When the final horn sounded, Ginobili hung around to embrace everyone. He found Brown, the former Spurs assistant. He clapped hands with Durant and with Curry, who had joined the Spurs crowd in ovation when Ginobili vacated the floor for the last time.

Ginobili even exchanged pleasantries with Pachulia, still Public Enemy No. 1 in South Texas.

“It was kind of emotional and overwhelming,” Ginobili said.

At last, Ginobili left the floor to another raucous cheer from fans who still remained. He waved to the crowd, and he blew a kiss.

Only time will tell if it is a kiss goodbye.

jmcdonald@express-news.net

Twitter: @JMcDonald_SAEN