Manu Ginobili Injury: 5 Players on San Antonio Spurs Who Need to Step Up

By (Featured Columnist) on January 3, 2012

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San Antonio Spurs guard Manu Ginobili has seen a lot through his NBA career and he is now beginning his 10th season.

He's even been bitten by a bat and has found a way to play through it.

However, the broken bone to Ginobili's left hand that he suffered Monday could sideline him for a while.

It's a bad time for the Spurs to be without their likely best player, but in order for them to keep things together someone is going to have to step up in his absence.

Here's a look at five current Spurs that need to step it up.

James Anderson

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Chris Graythen/Getty Images

Anderson is next up on the depth chart and the most logical option to step up for the Spurs.

He's young and may be able to replace some of the 17.4 points per game that Ginobili was averaging, but it will be hard for Anderson to replace all of the intangibles that Ginobili brings to the table.

With Gary Neal also out of the lineup at the moment, Anderson will be counted on heavily.

Richard Jefferson

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Ronald Martinez/Getty Images

Many around the league thought that Jefferson wouldn't be in a Spurs uniform this season as a potential amnesty cut, but he is and now he must increase his production.

It's been an up and down ride for Jefferson in San Antonio the past few seasons but he's off to a decent start to the season averaging over 12 points per contest and could be asked to shoulder more of the scoring load in the absence of Ginobili.

Tony Parker

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Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images

Parker is averaging 13.2 points per game, down from his 16.7 career average, but he will likely have to shoulder some more of the scoring load. That's nothing that Parker isn't accustomed to doing.

Kawhi Leonard

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Harry How/Getty Images

The rookie likely was going to cut into Jefferson's minutes before the end of the season, but now may be the opportunity for head coach Greg Popovich to find the rookie some more minutes.

While his offensive game is still raw, his size, strength and versatility is intriguing enough to see what he could be capable of.

Tim Duncan

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Andy Lyons/Getty Images

He's averaging only 21 minutes per game and is off to a terribly slow start, but it's now Duncan's opportunity to show that he's got a little bit left in the tank.

If he starts to increase his production, we could even see the Spurs offense begin to run through him once again.

He is coming off his best performance of the season so we will see if the future Hall of Famer can keep it up.

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