Series gets longer as Lakers’ attention span gets shorter

SAN ANTONIO – What short series?

Maybe the Lakers slept on their plane Saturday night and just didn’t tell anyone. Whatever the case, they showed up Sunday night with about 15 minutes of good basketball and when that didn’t get the job done, watched as the Spurs completed a 103-84 rout.

See if this sounds familiar.

The Spurs, who looked out on their feet in Games 1 and 2, look a lot better now.

Manu Ginobili, staging a comeback that looked more like a miracle, scored 30 points, 22 before halftime – which was five more than he had in the first two games combined.

Spurs Coach Gregg Popovich, who had an entire roster to revive, saw 35-year-old Michael Finley, three for 16 from the floor in the series to that point, make his first three-pointer and, one possession later, knock in an 18-footer.

Then 36-year-old Brent Barry, who had also been struggling, made two threes.

Next, you expected David Robinson to come out of the crowd and throw down a dunk on Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom.

This wasn’t how the Spurs had looked in Los Angeles, or even at the start of Game 3 when they came out missing shots and saw the Lakers jump out to a 15-8 lead.

Coach Phil Jackson, asked if his team let the Spurs up, said, “I do. I thought we had an opportunity early in the ball game and didn’t take advantage of it.”

Of course, as the Spurs refused to blame fatigue, crediting the Lakers’ play in Games 1 and 2, the Spurs seized this one, or, more to the point, one of them did.

Ginobili, who had scored 17 points in Games 1 and 2 while shooting five for 21, has a sore ankle that takes away his explosiveness but, in the Spurs’ style, insisted he was fine.

“What you’re seeing on the floor is obviously a player who would like to do better, who wants to do better,” Popovich said before the game.

“He’s frustrated for a variety of reasons. He is just looking to come and play as best he can and I’m looking forward to him having a real good game today.”

Of course, even if no one was surprised to see Ginobili have a better game, no one expected it to be that much better.

Ginobili had already made four three-pointers in the first half, with another three-point play on a layup on which he was fouled, when he threw one of his patented head fakes at Sasha Vujacic at the three-point line.

Vujacic didn’t go for this one, staying on his feet, blanketing Ginobili.

So Ginobili jumped back and hit his fifth three of the half over him.

“He hit one shot that just made me laugh,” said Kobe Bryant. “It was right in Sasha’s face… .

“He bounced back the way I thought he would. He’s a phenomenal player and he had a spectacular first half.”

Bryant, a phenomenal player in his own right, played well, moving the ball commendably before finally trying to take over in the fourth quarter when he banged in three Kobe-style three-pointers within 72 seconds.

The only problem was this was a night when they needed him to take over a lot earlier.

Bryant still has Game 4 here Tuesday to try to get it right, or this series is going to get a lot longer fast.

mark.heisler@latimes.com