"I felt great before the game," Ginobili said after Saturday's 106-99 loss to the Denver Nuggets at the AT&T Center. "The good thing is I'm feeling really good after the game, too."

Ginobili says self doubt has robbed his game of much of its effectiveness.

"I'm lacking a lot of stuff, mainly confidence," he said. "I'm still hesitating, doing things I don't usually do - passing up shots or not attacking the rim as hard. Maybe I'm thinking too hard, or worried because I already missed six games. I really don't know."

Ginobili's crisis of confidence has put Spurs coach Gregg Popovich in a tough spot. He needs Ginobili to be one of his go-to guys down the stretch of close games, but only if he is making good decisions.

After giving Ginobili only three seconds in the fourth period of Thursday's loss to the Celtics, Popovich had him on the floor for nearly eight minutes of the fourth against Denver, but Ginobili missed all three of his field goal attempts and committed a turnover.

Fair is fair: After DeJuan Blair suffered the embarrassment of making a basket for Boston in Thursday's loss to the Celtics - the ball bounced off Blair's elbow as he was trying for an uncontested, one-handed rebound of a Boston miss - the Spurs rookie made another bizarre basket Saturday, this time benefiting the Spurs .

Denver's Chris Andersen knocked the ball from Blair's grasp as the Spurs forward went up for a shot in the first quarter, but it bounced off his leg and into the basket.

Popovich had called Blair's basket for the Celtics something he never had seen at any level.

"We had to show DeJuan which end you score at," Popovich said. "Timmy (Duncan) thought it was OK because the shot was uncontested. Timmy told me to get off his case."

Do they need passports? Tonight's game at EnergySolutions Arena will be the Spurs' first outside the state of Texas since Nov. 6, when they lost to the Trail Blazers 96-84 in Portland.

Since then, the Spurs' only road games were in Dallas, where they lost to the Mavericks in overtime, and in Houston, where they got their only road victory so far this season the day after Thanksgiving.

They will return from Utah for two more home games: Wednesday against the Sacramento Kings and Friday against the Charlotte Bobcats, before heading to Los Angeles for a game against the Clippers on Dec. 13.

Hairston in Utah: With Michael Finley expected to miss a few games with a Grade 2 left ankle sprain, and with four games this week, the Spurs had swingman Malik Hairston meet them in Salt Lake City on Sunday.

Hairston was assigned to the Spurs' Austin Toros NBA Development League team Friday, and he has yet to be officially re-called to the Spurs' roster.

If Popovich decides the team's four games this week dictates the need for another guard-forward, Hairston likely will be re-called.

Assigned so he could get playing time - he had appeared in only four of 16 games - Hairston can be assigned to the Toros three times during the season.