Manu Ginobili Injury: Updates on Spurs Star's Oblique Injury

The Spurs' Manu Ginobili has strained his oblique and the injury is expected to force him out of action for a couple of weeks. 

The injury occurred Saturday night when the Spurs took a trip to Lob City. While they emerged with an overtime victory against the Clippers—that victory came at a steep price. 

SI.com's Sam Amick fills in with the update. 

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San Antonio says Manu Ginobili (oblique strain) and Tiago Splitter (right calf strain) both expected to miss two weeks.

— Sam Amick (@sam_amick) February 20, 2012"

This is a deflating blow to the Spurs, who were just getting used to playing with Ginobili once again and will now have to deal with his absence combined with the loss of Splitter.

Splitter was averaging just over 20 minutes a game with 9.4 points and 5.2 rebounds. His absence will likely lead to increased minutes for both Tim Duncan and forward Matt Bonner.   

San Antonio will have six games between now and March 4th, when the two-week timeline will have run its course. 

Those six games aren't going to be a cakewalk either. They will play at the Jazz, Blazers and Nuggets before returning home for three games against the Bulls, Bobcats and Nuggets again. 

The good news for the Spurs is that they have built up a nice cushion to help them withstand a rough two-week stretch. They have the Western Conference's second-best record at 22-9 and hold a 2.5-game lead over the Mavericks in the Southwest Division. 

Of course, the other good news is that the Spurs have become all to accustomed to playing without Ginobili. He has played in just nine games this year. 

The Clippers game was just his fourth game back after missing almost the entire season with injury issues. 

The Spurs have gone 15-7 in games without Ginobili.