David West probably should have seen it coming.

He played with Manu Ginobili for a season in San Antonio. He had witnessed this kind of thing before.

West had come to trap Ginobili near the sideline Saturday. Ginobili improvised by bouncing the ball through West’s outspread legs, collected the ball on the other side of the bewildered Golden State forward and barreled headlong into a foul at the rim.

While social media and ESPN commentators fawned at Ginobili’s unorthodox drive, the rest of the Spurs yawned.

“I’ve seen Manu do a little bit of everything,” guard Danny Green said. “It wasn’t as much of a shock for us.”

Ginobili unleashed that particular move, in the third quarter of the Spurs’ 120-108 Game 3 loss to the Warriors, for the same reason George Mallory once proposed conquering Everest.

Because it was there.

“When I saw him in that position,” Ginobili said, “I just went for it.”

When Ginobili at last calls it the end of a swashbuckling NBA career, this will be the title of his autobiography.

“I Just Went For It: the Manu Ginobili Story.”

More Information Spurs vs. Warriors (Best-of-7 series) G1: @Warriors 113, Spurs 111 G2: @Warriors 136, Spurs 100 G3: Warriors 120, @Spurs 108 G4: @Spurs, today (Warriors lead series 3-0) *G5: @Warriors, Wednesday *G6: @Spurs, Friday * G7: @Warriors, May 28 * — if necessary TV: All games on ESPN at 8 p.m. Tickets: Available through Ticketmaster

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For now, Ginobili is only hoping that book has a few more chapters to it.

The Spurs face the top-seeded Warriors on Monday in Game 4 of the Western Conference finals at the AT&T Center. They are down 3-0 in the series, a deficit from which no team in NBA history has rallied to advance.

The Spurs’ season — and with it perhaps Ginobili’s extraordinary 15-year career — is on the clock.

“We’re here trying to make history,” Green said.

Ginobili reiterated Sunday he does not know what he will be doing at this time next year.

He will turn 40 in July, and has hinted throughout the season — often in the form of self-deprecating punchlines — that this campaign would likely be his last.

When the Spurs awarded him a one-year, $14 million contract last summer, it had the feel of a farewell gift.

Ginobili has stopped short of formally announcing any decision. He maintains his mind is not yet made up.

All he knows at the moment: He will become a free agent July 1, with another life choice to make.

“I’m going to go game by game,” Ginobili said. “We’ll see if (Monday) is the last one of the season. We hope that it’s not, and that we have a few more. Once it’s over, then I’ll start wondering what the future brings.”

Ginobili joined the Spurs in 2002-03, a wild-eyed wild card from Argentina.

He had been drafted 57th overall three years earlier, the mother of all Hail Marys.

So unsure was Ginobili about his status as a pro prospect, he slept through draft night. A coach on his Argentine club team had to awaken him to deliver the news.

The rest is San Antonio legend. Ginobili developed into the soul of four NBA championship squads that followed, teaming with Tim Duncan and Tony Parker to comprise the winningest trio in league history.

Ginobili’s NBA success, combined with an international resume that includes 2004 Olympic gold for Team Argentina’s little engine that could, is an ironclad lock to land him in the Naismith Hall of Fame.

“He’s been obviously great for the game of basketball, great for the NBA, great for the Spurs organization,” Golden State guard Stephen Curry said. “I want to see where that fountain of youth is so I can see if I can get a hold of that for the rest of my career.”

For the second year in a row, the Spurs enter a possible elimination game that could double as a swan song for a franchise stalwart.

If Ginobili is indeed prepared to follow Duncan into retirement, it was fitting for him to have a night such as Saturday.

With the Spurs down to almost their last gasp — missing Kawhi Leonard, Tony Parker, David Lee and all hope — Ginobili summoned some of that old Manu magic.

He scored 21 points, his season high and the second-most by a player age 39 or older in a conference finals game.

It begged the question: What did Ginobili eat?

“I think it was a bunch of blueberries and turmeric, garlic and all kinds of things,” said Popovich, perhaps revealing the secret recipe for Ginobili’s “Grandpa Juice.” “Pomegranates, whatever you get to make you rejuvenate.”

Turning serious, Popovich left little doubt what Ginobili means to the Spurs as they attempt to battle out of impossible situation against the Warriors.

“To go out there and have that will and that competitiveness and to summon it up like that,” Popovich said. “He’s a remarkable human being.”

For the past 48 hours, Ginobili has been Tom Sawyer at his own funeral.

Since his Game 3 outburst, teammates, commentators, opponents have offered gushing eulogies of a career that is not yet over.

“This is getting a little weird,” Ginobili chuckled.

Even so, it doesn’t take much to get Ginobili in a reflective mood heading into what might be his final game.

Asked what he will remember most about his life in basketball, Ginobili did not hold back.

“It’s easy to remember the wins, the good moments, the highs,” Ginobili said. “Even the lows were great, too, in a different sense of connection, of camaraderie, of doing it together. Even the bad moments, I’m proud of them too.

“It’s hard to choose one moment. The whole trip is incredible.”

Heading into Game 4, with the conference finals a foregone conclusion, all the Spurs, their fans and the city of San Antonio can hope for now is one more incredible Manu moment.

It doesn’t seem like too much to ask.

jmcdonald@express-news.net

Twitter: @JMcDonald_SAEN