LOS ANGELES — The ball swung to Manu Ginobili in the corner, followed by the sound of 20,572 fans at the Rose Garden inhaling at once.

The Spurs trailed Portland by three with 10 seconds left Thursday, and Ginobili was loading up for a 3-pointer that couldn't have been more uncontested had it come during shootaround.

As has been the case with the Spurs for much of the season, Ginobili's potential game-tying shot came with a glitch. He hadn't been expecting the pass from George Hill, who had eschewed an open look, and the surprise threw him out of rhythm. The ball bounced off the rim, and Portland hung on to a 96-93 victory.

“I had plenty of time; I stayed with the shot,” Ginobili said. “But it didn't look good from the beginning.”

For Ginobili, the Spurs' star-crossed shooting guard, the 3-point stroke is about all that hasn't looked good lately.

The Spurs are off to an uneven start to their annual rodeo trip, winning a defensively challenged shootout in Sacramento before blowing a chance at a season-altering win at Portland.

The one constant in both games, and the thing that gives the Spurs the most hope going forward: Manu Ginobili is beginning to look like Manu Ginobili.

In two games on the trip, Ginobili is averaging 20.5 points and 5.5 assists, has made 15 of 28 field goals and has reeled off the sort of breakneck drives that can only be described as “Ginobili-esque.” The lone pockmark has been his 3-of-11 performance from 3-point range, a persistent flaw this season.

Overall, it is a positive turn of events for Ginobili, who has been struggling to return to form after a pair of injury-plagued seasons that, for the first time, made him feel destructible.

“I'm feeling better and better,” said Ginobili, 32. “I think in the long term, everything is going to come together, and I'm going to feel like I felt two seasons ago.”

If that is Ginobili's ceiling, it cannot arrive soon enough for the Spurs, whose up-and-down season continues tonight against the Clippers.

Two seasons ago, Ginobili produced a career year (19.5 points, 4.5 assists, 40.1 percent 3-point shooting). He hasn't been healthy since, riddled with injury woes culminating in a stress fracture in his right distal fibula that ended his 2008-09 campaign.

For the first time in two seasons, Ginobili — who is averaging 13.3 points and a career-best 4.7 assists — has been consistently getting to the rim, and consistently finishing. In Sacramento, six of his seven field goals came on drives, including one 2005-vintage dunk over Spencer Hawes, the Kings' 7-foot center.

“He looks healthy,” coach Gregg Popovich said. “I think his body is starting to feel good.”

Trading the tentative Ginobili, who began this season, for something approximating the classic model would be the most significant roster upgrade the Spurs could muster.

All that remains missing from Ginobili's arsenal is his outside shot, which he believes he is days away from reclaiming. He is shooting 35.5 percent on 3-pointers this season, up 2.5 percentage points from last season but down nearly 5 percentage points from his career zenith.

“In 20 interviews at the beginning of the season, I said I was concerned about not getting to the rim, but at least my outside shot was going in,” Ginobili said. “Now, it's the opposite.”

Popovich says he has been satisfied with Ginobili's shot selection “for the most part.” Ginobili admits he's never been perfect in that regard.

“Sometimes I take bad shots,” he said, “because that's basically who I am.”

In the days to come, Ginobili hopes to rediscover more pieces of who he is, and once was.

“The shots are feeling good,” he said. “It's not like when I let it go, it feels bad. So I think they are going to start falling soon.”