Absolutely all you ever need to know about this game can be summarized in this picture (worth a thousand words, of course).

via a.espncdn.com

If you want to know more about the game, read on, but this pretty well sums it up: Manu is back.

It would be pretty easy to downplay the significance of this game. The Hornets are still not healthy: Tyson Chandler, who has been somewhat effective guarding Timmeh at times in the past, is still out. Mo Peterson, a competent two-guard, is still out. The Hornets were on the segababa (and a loss at that).

All that said, I do not know how important this game was. My feeble basketball mind (and that part of my brain where the Spurs homer lives) thinks it may have been a pretty big deal though. Make no mistake - we crushed this team tonight. After the midpoint of the first quarter (coincidentally, the point when a certain Argentianian guard entered the game), it was not a contest. And, I would reiterate ATS's point that the game was not as close as the final score would indicate. CP3 went on an incredible streak in late 3rd/early 4th when he went 5-6 from downtown, or this would have been a 20-point win. Stick that in your Power Rankings machine, Mr. Hollinger, and see what comes out. The rest of the season - and in particular, the rodeo road-trip - will tell us a lot about how big a deal this game was, when we look back on it.

But for me, this was the game when we saw Manu again, for an entire game. We saw him - as ATS again astutely observed - in the 4th quarter of the Jazz game. We saw him in fits and spurts in Phoenix. But tonight, he was all here, all the time, and he wore out every single defender that NO threw at him.  Hilton Armstrong, in particular, got the brunt. Not just on the receiving end of the flush in the picture, but also on several Manu drives and layups or drive and kick out, where young Hilton was out of position. Wore. Him. Out. And it was beautiful to behold.

I'm setting aside my usual quarter-by-quarter analysis for this recap. In part because I think I have captured the key points above (and will mention a few others below), in part because ATS already posted his excellent in-person account (complete with appropriate digs at SiMA), and finally, because I accidentally deleted the game from my DVR when I went to delete Lost after the game. Crap.

Random Notes / Thoughts:

- Unlike most people, I enjoy watching a good blowout. The WCF two years ago against the Jazz was one of my favorite playoff series ever. I like a good close series too, but watching that series was like watching a Basketball 101 clinic. Most of you that read my recaps know that I am a bit of an X-and-O nut. I really enjoy dissecting the game and looking at the player and ball movement that led to the play. If you want to know how to play good team basketball, take advantage of mismatches, and get every shot you want, replay that series. It was some of the most beautiful, free-flowing, radiant, poetic, exhilirating offense you will ever see. What I saw at certain points in this game was beautiful Spurs basketball, like we saw in that series and like we have seen at many times over the years (but not much last year). Again, I don't want to say this was a watershed game or the overused "turning point" game or any other cliche. At the end of the day, it was one win in January. But time will tell if it meant something more, because I could not believe I was watching the same team that collapsed at LA 7 days earlier.

- Please indulge me in a personal note:

Dear Chris Paul:

You are great. I don't mean 2 or 3 time All Star great. I mean when your career is over, if you stay healthy and get a better coach and some new teammates, GOAT-at-the-point kind of great. You have to go back a long, long way to find a point guard that does things you do so smoothly, so effortlessly, so casually, yet with the intensity and fire that you have. I'm man enough to say it - I am in love with your game.

But, right now, you are one of the least professional players in the league. Your constant whining, your us-against-the-world attitude and the flopping. My god, I can't even begin to describe the flopping. I know it seems ridiculous for a Spurs fan to ridicule another player for flopping; after all, we have Manu. We have Bruce. And we had the very underrated flopper Robert Horry in his flop-o-licious prime. But Chris (I will never again call you CP3 until this cleans up), you make all three of these guys look like AMATEURS. In the third quarter, Mase brushed against you and, for a second, I would have sworn that ATS or Matthew grabbed a sniper rifle and took out your hip. It looked devastating. Until you got up and ran back to your man like nothing happened. And that was one of 10 documented instances I counted in this game (my own personal Chris Paul flopometer). On rick2g's old levels of flopping chart (anyone else remember that?), I think several of yours last night would have been off of the scale.

Chris, it's got to stop. It just has to. I hate to do this, but I will: to quote Mark Jackson, "You are better than that". Much, much better. It affected your teammates last night to the tune of 3 technicals. You are the LEADER of this team. If you do this crap, Hilton Armstrong will think it's OK too. Is that what you want? Hilton Armstrong to get T'd up and cost you a playoff game? Be a man. Lead your team. Do not accept excuses - from the refs, from your teammates, from yourself. You are better than that. Now play like it.

Sincerely,

spurchief

- Byron Scott was a Coach of the Year? Really? You take out Chris Paul in a 10 point game with 7 minutes left when said player has just gone 4-5 from 3? Really?

Your Three Stars:

3 (tie). Michael Finley - Got us back in the game early in the first with timely and accurate shooting. 20 points on 8-10, +18.

3 (tie). Tim - Only 5-10 for 12 points and 8 boards. But a +22 and, besides, on his worst day, he has to be here. Tony and Manu are not Tony and Manu without Tim.

2. Tony - Just a fantastic game. 12-18, 25 points, 3 boards, 7 assists and a matching +22 with Tim. His defense on Paul does not look good in the box score (15-22, 38 points) but I would argue that this was one of his better defensive games as well. An otstanding effort for Tony all around.

1. Emanuel David Ginobili - He for whom stats are not always particularly relevant (but since you asked, 22 points on 7-15, 3 boards, 5 assists, 2 steals, +14). He dominated this game. Every aspect of it. And still only played 25 minutes.

This was a great win to kick off the rodeo road trip, in more ways than one. I hope we can look back on this one later this season and point to this game as the one when we saw the real Manu again.