The San Antonio Spurs’ reputation as exemplars of team basketball is well founded: no team is better at using passing and movement to derive a greater whole from five players. But in a 114-104 Game 5 victory over the Miami Heat on Sunday night, it was the individual ability of guards Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili that proved decisive as the Spurs routinely forewent their motion-based offense in favor of solo drives.

Ginobili was but a dull reminder of his former brilliance through the first four games of the N.B.A. finals, but in Game 5, he showcased his unique and thrilling brand of basketball, piling up 24 points and 10 assists in what might have been his final home game as a Spur. Ginobili is 35 and will be a free agent in July, and the Spurs’ season, whether in victory or defeat, will end in Miami.

With his long strides and unorthodox ball-handling style, Ginobili has always stood out as a radical, even on the Spurs. Their black-and-white uniforms reflect the Spurs’ adherence to rules of fundamental basketball, but Ginobili is a transgressive creative force. In Game 5, that freedom resulted in a vintage performance.

Though slowed by age and injury, Ginobili remains a basketball genius. Whether passing or daringly driving to the rim, Ginobili finds angles and opportunities on the court that few can see, as though he imagines and wills them into being.