But Marks is finished with that job. He blocked one of Ginobili's shots Sunday night, and he had a quasi-dunk, and he once stood in Ginobili's path trying to draw a charge.

Ginobili got the call, then turned to his former teammate. "Are you trying to hurt me?" Ginobili playfully asked.

As two friends got closer in the standings, on a night that could have passed for last May, the answer was, well, yes.

No one was really hurt, and for the Hornets that's rare news. When they aren't losing players to injuries, they are to suspension. They were without three rotation players Sunday night.

Naturally, this scared the Spurs' staff. The coaches talked before the game about this being precisely the kind of setup they feared, and what bothered them the most is that the Hornets had fallen flat to the Knicks the game before.

That night in New York, Byron Scott said, "They outworked us."

Not coincidentally, Gregg Popovich would be using the same language after Sunday's meeting. The Hornets "wanted the game more," he said.

These are the emotional swings of a long NBA season, and shooting streaks swing as abruptly. As much as Popovich didn't like how his team reacted Sunday, he will see the 7-of-29 shooting from behind the 3-point line, and he will understand these things happen.

But there are real negatives, and one is Ginobili. He's not back, not at his closer best. He said he got winded at the end of the third quarter, and he admitted he still doesn't have the "last step."

That's the one that takes him to the basket.

With nine games left, he's not sure when it will come back. Given that, there might be more nights such as Sunday, when the Spurs were behind by only three points with over three minutes left, and Ginobili wasn't the one in charge.

Only at the very end, when Ginobili threw in a three, then drew the kind of foul that's made him famous, did he impact as he usually has. That, and friendship, is why Marks carried him around the AT&T floor in 2005.

But with Ginobili trying to find his footing, the Spurs are caught in a crazy, tight mix. Sunday night showed how the gap has closed between the No. 2 seed and the No. 7.

The only question now: Which one will the Spurs be when the playoffs come?

Marks laughs when he hears that. He was around the Spurs for too long to think they will be settling near the bottom of the conference over the next few weeks.

Still, only two games in the loss column separate the Spurs from the Hornets. "Who can say what will happen?" Marks said.

His own career has the same theme. He's 6-foot-10, and he has a jumper, but he stuck with the Spurs because of his attitude. His relationship with Ginobili told of that; it's not as if an Argentine and a New Zealander would have an obvious tie.

Eventually the Spurs opted for more talent. Marks went to Phoenix where he kept the same, good-guy role, but he's earned some time in New Orleans. With Tyson Chandler so often injured this season, Marks has started some games and he's played significant minutes.

Sunday, when he stood in against his former teammates, ranked with any. Scott called him "terrific" afterward, and a sequence in the third quarter changed the game. Maybe the eventual seeding, too.

Then Ginobili hit a 3-pointer for a four-point Spurs lead, and he came down for another. Marks blocked it. And when he followed by going up with two hands over Tim Duncan, the ball barely dribbling over the rim, the Hornets had the lead. They never trailed again.

The game would remain as tight as the conference, however. And afterward Marks talked about this tight race, and how the conference seedings will be decided.

"It will come down to the last game," he said.

For the Spurs, that will be in San Antonio. Against Marks and the Hornets.

bharvey@express-news.net