The San Antonio Spurs faced a tough scenario in Wednesday night's game against the Portland Trail Blazers.Trailing 108-105 late in the game, guard Manu Ginobili stepped to the free-throw line with 2.5 seconds left and promptly missed the first shot. In that situation, the best bet for the Spurs would have been to have Ginobili intentionally miss the second shot and hope for an offensive rebound.Then, the Spurs could have kicked it out behind the arc and attempted a game-tying three-pointer.However, try as he might, Ginobili simply couldn't miss the second free throw. Despite his best efforts (and much to the chagrin of his teammates), he gets an insanely lucky bounce and makes the shot, as you can see in the video below:

That unintentional score made it 108-106 in favor of Portland and gave the Blazers the ball out of bounds. Following an ensuing foul, the Blazers made two more free throws to seal a 110-106 victory on San Antonio's court.

Ginobili finished the game with seven points, six assists and one rebound, but the Spurs were finally back to near-full strength on Wednesday night, as both Kawhi Leonard and LaMarcus Aldridge were back in action.

Leonard led the way for San Antonio, scoring 34 points, grabbing nine rebounds and dishing out six assists, but it wasn't enough to stop Damian Lillard and the Trail Blazers. Lillard scored a game-high 36 points and also had four assists and three rebounds.

With the home loss, the Spurs fell to 52-15 on the season, one game behind the Golden State Warriors for the NBA's best record (and the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference playoff race). Portland improved to 30-37 with the win and now is only two games behind the Denver Nuggets for the eighth and final playoff spot in the West.

On the season, Ginobili is averaging 7.7 points and 2.7 assists in 18.9 minutes per game. At age 39, the Argentinian is no longer the star sixth man he once was, but he's still a valuable piece to the Spurs' bench.

This season could be Ginobili's last run at a title, of which he has four from his San Antonio career. He and fellow guard Tony Parker are no longer the most important keys to the Spurs' success, but having them play well in the playoffs is what could give San Antonio a narrow edge over the high-powered Warriors.

However, with several close playoff games a near-certainty, Ginobili will need to work on his free-throw shooting - both when to make shots and when to miss them.