"The long NBA lockout, which began in midsummer and stretched deep into the fall, allowed Manu Ginobili to spend quality time in Argentina, where he is one of the most popular personalities in his native land.

For the civic-minded Spurs guard, this interlude included a lot of personal appearances on behalf of many causes, including promoting a new book authored by mathematics professor Adrián Paenza.

Ginobili explained to his countrymen that he is hooked on math, so it seemed natural Thursday night when he turned to the most logical of disciplines to explain how the Spurs laid an egg in a 105-85 loss to the Rockets in Houston in their third game of the season.

Taking note of how surprised he had been at the excellence the Spurs had displayed in their first two games, both victories over talented teams, the two-time All-Star said a subpar performance probably should have been expected.

"My way of thinking now is that this is a typical case of regression to the mean," he said. "We played an extremely good first two games, over the expectations, and today we were below. So it happens."

Of course, the goal for the Spurs every season is to play far above the mean. They will try to ? get back on a better-than-average track tonight when they play the Utah Jazz at the AT&T Center to close out the blink-of-an-eye 2011 portion of the 66-game 2011-12 season."