San Antonio Spurs guard Manu Ginobili will not participate in the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup in Spain qualifiers according to Team Argentina head coach Julio Lamas (via elpatagonico.net).

What we do known in advance, is that neither Emanuel Ginobili (San Antonio Spurs, NBA) and Andres Nocioni (Labor Kutxa, Spain) and Leonardo Gutierrez (Peñarol de Mar del Plata) will not be in Venezuela between August 30 and September 11 for the 2014 World Cup in Spain.

Ginobili playing during the offseason has always brought mixed feelings from Spurs fans. Some feel he shouldn't play during the summer and rest for the next NBA season while others have no issues with him playing with Team Argentina seeing his desire to represent his home country as something to admire.

19, 21, 19, 23.

Above are four random numbers. When put into the realm of basketball on Thursday, those numbers represent how many points the San Antonio Spurs allowed the Golden State Warriors to score in Game 6 in four consecutive quarters.

Like last season, the Spurs are one their way back to the Western Conference Finals after eliminating the Warriors 94-82. Unlike last year though, the Spurs have shown the ability to be a defensive force as they held the high scoring Warriors, who came into the series averaging 107 points per game in the playoffs, to 98 points in the series.

The matchup of the game for Game 6 between the San Antonio Spurs and Golden State Warriors in the Western Conference Semi-Finals will be between Stephen Curry and the backcourt of the San Antonio Spurs.

While Stephen Curry has been slowed down by a second injury to his left ankle, it may be the defense that's helping keep him tamed on the offensive end. Even after Curry injured his ankle, he seemed to have gotten shots off and making them at an impressive rate with the exception of last game. He shot 1-7 from the 3-point arc last game while only scoring 9 points (4-14 FG). The Spurs have zoned in on him and kept him close after getting screens from his big men, but have also incorporated another aspect in the game that has made Curry a liability.  The Spurs' Tony Parker, Danny Green, Manu Ginobili, and Kawhi Leonard have made Stephen Curry work for the whole game and that will show in Game 6 also.

What the Spurs must do on offense:

The San Antonio Spurs won a decisive Game 5, putting the pressure on the Warriors to match their execution. Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson -- coach Mark Jackson christened them as the best shooting backcourt ever -- combined for a series-low 13 points on Tuesday and missed almost three times more shots (16) than they made (6). Entering tonight's penultimate game, there are still a lot of questions that haven't been resolved.

What happened to Thompson?

Since his 3-point shooting barrage in Game 2, which cemented the Warriors’ first win in San Antonio since 1997, Thompson has been nonexistent. The Spurs haven't deployed a drastically different defensive scheme -- Kawhi Leonard still checks Thompson -- but they have just about eradicated all transition 3-point attempts and open looks that he usually subsists on.

While San Antonio Spurs fans have been showering former Spur Richard Jefferson with boos every time he has checked in for the Goflden State Warriors, there wasn't anything there to show any tension between Jefferson and his former teammates, until now.

After a timeout during Game 5 in San Antonio, Jefferson recieved a little shove from both Manu Ginobili and Tim Duncan. While some say it's because he was on the Spurs' side, it seems to me that this happens after Jefferson  blocks use of the courtside traction pad from Spurs guard Cory Joseph.

While the shoves were nothing too serious or overly aggressive, it's still a surprise between a group of former teammates. While one could see they were playing with Jefferson, Duncan's scowl and subsequent staredown made it seem like much more than that.

San Antonio Spurs assistant coach Mike Budenholzer is the most likely candidate to replace head coach Gregg Popovich should Pop ever decide it’s time to retire. There’s no telling when that will be, so for now, Coach Bud is Pop’s top assistant.

Budenholzer has been on Popovich’s staff for 16 years, making him a very sought-after candidate for head coaching positions around the league. Lately, he has seemed more open to the possibility of taking one of those positions.

He recently interviewed with the Detroit Pistons and is being considered a candidate for the job. The Pistons are trying to find a replacement for Lawrence Frank, who was fired after this season.

There has been no indication from either party yet as to whether or not this will lead to Coach Bud taking the job. The Pistons have also interviewed former head coach Nate McMillan and a few other potential candidates.

The San Antonio Spurs (7-2) will look to put away the Golden State Warriors (6-5) tonight in Oakland in Game 6 of their Semifinals series.

The Spurs are coming off a convincing 109-91 win over the Warriors in Game 5 in San Antonio. Tony Parker led the team with 25 points and 10 assists in the win. Harrison Barnes finished with 25 points for a second consecutive game for the Warriors.

And as the Spurs look to end the Warriors' season, and advance to face the Grizzlies in the West Finals, here are five things to watch for during tonight's game.

• The Spurs are 3-0 in the road in the postseason when scoring 100 points or more.

The San Antonio Spurs cruised to a 109-91 win at home in Game 5 of their Semifinals series against the Golden State Warriors and will now head back to Oakland for Game 6 tomorrow.

The Spurs completely had control of Game 5 from winning the rebound battle, hard-nose defense to containing the Warriors' duo of Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson.

After the game, Tim Duncan gave his thoughts on the win and said he liked the team defense, closing out on Golden State three-point shooters, keeping the Warriors off the glass and more. Check out what Duncan had to say including how great Kawhi Leonard's play was in Game 5.

“There is no stop until the board is secured.”

That was Gregg Popovich after Tuesday's Game 5 victory over the Golden State Warriors.  It was the first time in the series and only second time in the playoffs they've won the rebounding battle.  This series has been particularly rough the San Antonio Spurs have allowed the Warriors to grab over 51 rebounds per game, including 13.4 offensive boards per game. 

Make no mistake, the Spurs have done a really good on defense this series, especially on Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson, but they're a -31 on the boards for the series.  A good example of the Spurs' rebounding woes came in Game 4's overtime loss, when the Warriors grabbed 19 offensive rebounds and converted those in to 16 second chance points.

We didn’t know too much about Davis Bertans when he was drafted by the San Antonio Spurs in 2011. He was widely considered to be a steal, considered the best shooter in the draft, and was likely a draft and stash since he was still very raw and young.

Early on Bertans drew comparisons to Dirk Nowitzki, but was also thought to be a little one-dimensional as a tall player who didn’t have the strength to play inside or have the speed or athleticism to play in a true swingman role, so he would be relegated in an outside spot-up shooter’s role.