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The super sixth man instead got his first start of this postseason, and the San Antonio Spurs harnessed his energy early against the New Orleans Hornets and avoided going into what has historically been an insurmountable hole.
Ginobili and Tony Parker scored 31 points apiece to lead the defending NBA champions to a 110-99 Game 3 win in the Western Conference semifinals. New Orleans still has a 2-1 series lead.
"Going down 3-0 would have been really difficult - obviously," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. "We played for 48 minutes for the first time in the series, and it got us a win."
Game 4 is Sunday night in San Antonio.
In the other NBA playoff game Thursday night, Boston beat Cleveland 89-73. Home teams are 10-0 in the four conference semifinal series.
No NBA team has ever come back from an 0-3 deficit, and Ginobili and the Spurs knew it.
"Today, for us, it was a Game 7," said Ginobili, who along with Parker consistently got to the rim. "We knew if we didn't win today, it was almost over. So we had a different approach. We played with more passion, more edge."
Chris Paul, still almost unstoppable, led the Hornets with 35 points and nine assists. David West had 23 points and 12 rebounds for New Orleans, which was dominant in the first two games of the series.
"We can't let them dictate how we're going to play. The first two games we didn't do that," West said. "We just can't let them dictate how we're going to play. We have to be willing to go out and just play with what's going to give us some success."
Tim Duncan had 16 points and 13 rebounds for San Antonio. Tyson Chandler scored 12 for the Hornets.
After trading leads all night, Ginobili led a Spurs charge early in the final quarter. Left alone, he hit an open 3 and was fouled by Bonzi Wells. Ginobili's free throw put San Antonio up 87-82, and another 3 by Ginobili 38 seconds later made it 90-84.
New Orleans got within 90-88 before the Spurs took over, playing out the fourth quarter better than they've played all series.
"I don't think there's cause for us to panic or anything like that," Paul said. "We understand what we did. We're just going to go to the drawing board and get this thing right."
San Antonio went on an 11-0 burst to take a 101-88 lead with 5:57 to play.
The Spurs couldn't stop Paul, but West missed three of four free throws and the Hornets got no closer than 10 points in the latter half of the quarter.
