San Antonio Spurs' Tony Parker wasn't himself when he played against the Los Angeles Lakers on Sunday afternoon.

Parker has been a step slow since his ankle injury in the regular season and has not caught up to his former MVP-like play, especially with his 8-21 shooting. His counterpart, Steve Blake, got the better of him on the defensive end with steals and blocks which may have brought up fears that Parker isn't close to being fully healthy for the stretch run for the fifth championship in the franchise's history.

With his fans second guessing the health of their starting point guard, Gregg Popovich gives us an update on his health and how he's doing on a day to day basis. Check out the video below to hear Pop's comments.

Heading in to the playoffs, most observers looked at the big man match up between the San Antonio Spurs and Los Angeles Lakers as advantage Lakers. 

Dwight Howard was finally starting to resemble Dwight Howard again and Paul Gasol had been on a tear the last week of the season.  However, Tim Duncan played better than either Laker big in game one and Tiago Splitter played good enough defense that the Spurs didn't have to adjust their defensive strategy too much. 

After the game, Howard told reporters the Spurs were aggressive on defense, but he doesn't expect that to last.

San Antonio Spurs' Tiago Splitter showed his method of recovery and from the looks of things, he may have angered Darth Vader and got himself put into the carbon freezing chamber.

All kidding aside, Splitter took to Twitter to show his use of the cryosauna treatment to get ready for the 2013 NBA Playoffs and yes folks, you are reading the temperature correct. That is -142 degrees Celsius via liquid nitrogen.

Cory Joseph wasn't supposed to be in the playoff rotation. A call up from the D-League's Austin Toros, Joseph was supposed to fill in for the team during injuries to Tony Parker, Gary Neal, and sometimes Manu Ginobili.

The San Antonio Spurs had more than enough of a surplus with Neal, Nando De Colo, and Patty Mills fighting for minutes in one position for backup point guard.

Fast forward to Game 1 of the first round of the NBA playoffs and Cory Joseph has cracked the rotation over De Colo and Mills and head coach Gregg Popovich's reasoning is simple enough on why the Austin Toros call up has made it this far.

"Cory did a good job defensively. He was solid. He didn't make mistakes," Popovich explained postgame. "He got us into offense. He made a couple of shots, but his defense was very solid and that's what we want him to do."

DeJuan Blair hasn't gotten consistent minutes from the San Antonio Spurs. The fan base was screaming for him to be traded during the season and he seemed to have lost his place on the court until Stephen Jackson was released by the team.

But if this is Blair's final games in black and silver, he sure left us with this gem.

Blair has a very "interesting" pre-game ritual to say the last. He was caught by Spurs.com in the back heading out to the court in a choreographed dance before a game.

Check out the dance below including some of the staff taking part in Blair's fancy moves.

Much was made of Manu Ginobili's hyper-efficient Game 1 line and rightfully so. Ginobili, far removed from his days as the San Antonio Spurs' offensive catalyst, tied a team-high in points (18) in a mere 19 minutes.

AT&T Center -- Losing your star player right before the postseason begins was probably not what the Los Angeles Lakers wanted to face, as the team saw Kobe Bryant suffer a torn left Achilles injury as they were fighting for a playoff spot against the Warriors.

Yet despite losing Byrant for the season, the Lakers rallied to secure the seventh seed and carry a 5-game winning streak heading into the playoffs which netted them a first round series versus the No. 2 San Antonio Spurs.

Game 1 was went as many expected with the Lakers losing to the Spurs 91-79, however, the Lakers outshot the Spurs (41% to 37%) in the game which should give L.A. some confidence heading into Game 2.

Talking with the media postgame, Pau Gasol says his team has to remain confident without Bryant and just needs a be a little sharper on both ends of the court.

For the first time in the last 13 years and only the second time in the Mark Cuban era, the Dallas Mavericks missed out on the postseason. San Antonio Spurs fans might not think much of the Mavs’ past success because they’re spoiled by their own streak of playoff appearances, but Dallas’ recent history is quite impressive.

Now, as a lottery team, the Mavericks are looking to “rebuild.” It seems a little silly to say that when they’re only a couple years removed from winning an NBA championship and still playing at a .500 level. However, Cuban says any team that finishes outside the playoff teams enters the rebuilding phase. Which is something all teams except one have gone through recently.

It was a beautiful sight to see. After struggling through injuries and a big slump, Manu Ginobili returned to form just in time to lead the Spurs to a Game 1 victory.

Ginobili had 18 points in 19 minutes off the bench, including a dagger pull-up three-pointer that seemingly came out of nowhere. The Spurs are surely hoping this is the return of Manu and he’s back to his old self, but Coach Gregg Popovich is still a little cautious about his health.

"It was great to have Manu back,” Coach Pop said. “He does what he does. He makes big shots. He creates problems for the opponent and he's got a great will, a great desire. I'll worry all night about how he'll feel in the morning. If he says he feels great, then that will be a good sign for our team."

The San Antonio Spurs and Los Angeles Lakers may have gotten their first round series underway with San Antonio getting the win in game one but it is never too late to get in predictions from the experts.

For the past few years at the start of each playoff series, I ask a handful of bloggers and media members for their thoughts on the series and their predictions. Normally I get a mixed back of predictions, but for this opening-round series against the Los Angeles Lakers, it was a clean sweep of predictions for the Spurs over the Lakers.

Richard Oliver, San Antonio Express-News

I see the Spurs winning in five games. The Lakers will ride some emotion for a win at home, but are simply too shredded by injuries to outlast the Spurs.

Chris Duel, TalkNowSA