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The Phoenix Suns head to San Antonio to battle the Spurs in Game 3. San Antonio leads the series 2-0, so this is basically a must-win for Phoenix. InsideHoops.com scanned local Suns and Spurs newspapers, and we quoted key game comments leading into tonight's matchup. Obviously, all text below is credited to the newspaper at the start of each paragraph:

Arizona Republic: Joe Johnson did not fall face first from 10 feet high at Friday's practice. That seemingly was the only thing that remained to keep Johnson off the court today for Game 3 of the Western Conference finals at San Antonio. Johnson received another clearance from his surgeon Friday morning and practiced with his team for the second day to prepare for his first game since suffering a displaced orbital fracture on May 11. "I am just going to come back and do what I did before I left," Johnson said. "It is no biggie."

Arizona Republic: The criticism out of Dallas about Steve Nash's postseason play has died. The questions about whether Nash deserved the MVP award have been quieted. The only problem now is whether the Suns are going to leave San Antonio quietly this Memorial Day weekend, wasting Nash's greatest stretch of basketball ever. Even as Nash sliced up the Spurs, the Suns lost Games 1 and 2 of the Western Conference finals at home. That left many pundits thinking they are cooked. Phoenix will give another shot at the "must-win" game tonight when it plays the Spurs at the SBC Center, where San Antonio was 38-3 in the regular season. The upside is Joe Johnson's return. The downside is treacherous.

Arizona Republic: Joe Johnson's presence in the starting lineup, returning Jim Jackson to sixth man, may be enough to cross the line. The Suns went 3-3 without him, losing fourth-quarter leads in both games against San Antonio because of their porous and poorest defense. But the man Johnson is supposed to relieve the most looks like he should never come off the court these days. In the past seven games, Nash is averaging 32.7 points, 6.0 rebounds and 12.4 assists. He is riding a NBA-first streak of four straight playoff games with at least 25 points and 10 assists. Johnson will allow D'Antoni to scale back Nash's minutes as a more trusted option at backup point. Maybe that ultimately helps Phoenix's fourth-quarter performances. Johnson will guard Tony Parker more effectively, which also relieves Nash of the grinding task of chasing Parker through screens. Maybe that will help the fourth-quarter defense.

Arizona Republic: The Spurs are more than a really good team. They could be a nemesis. They could forever loom over this basketball revival in Phoenix. It's an ugly thought, but with the Suns down 0-2 and facing a Memorial Day weekend fraught with embarrassment, there seems to be an even bigger number in the air. It's the Spurs' 10 consecutive wins over the Suns when Tim Duncan is on the floor. It's the notion that the Spurs may be burrowing their way inside the Suns' heads, becoming the giant that just can't be beaten, now and in the near future. It's the fear that the Suns could end up like those really good teams in Sacramento and Portland, hopelessly lost in the Lakers' shadow.

Arizona Republic: The Spurs are cast as defensive specialists, which is only close to the truth. The Suns are all about offense, which is definitely (and sometimes painfully) true. Yet these teams are amazingly similar. Both have put a heavy premium on international scouting. Both have shined in drafting and acquiring relatively obscure players. These days, it's hard to imagine that the Spurs plucked Manu Ginobili with the 57th pick overall in the 1999 draft, then selected Tony Parker with the 28th pick in the 2001 draft.

San Antonio Express-News: Gregg Popovich already had waded into the media zone — more commonly known as "a corner" — at the team's practice facility Friday afternoon when Tim Duncan noticed his coach could use a little help fending off the unwashed masses. Duncan put his arm on Popovich's shoulder and proposed a joint interview, likely hoping such a scenario would lessen his own query load by 50 percent. Popovich, envisioning the next day's headlines as well as his beamed-across-the-nation sound bites, shook his head. "It's too silly," Popovich said. "I can see it now, 'Spurs Take Suns Lightly.'" As Popovich walked off, Duncan stared at him, quizzically. "We're not taking the Suns lightly?" All kidding aside, the Spurs insist the Phoenix Suns weigh just as heavily as they did before the Western Conference finals began. The two games the Spurs won in Phoenix provided a nice cushion but one they believe needs further padding when the best-of-seven series resumes tonight at the SBC Center.

San Antonio Express-News: Since March 1, 2004, the Spurs are 60-5 at the SBC Center, including the playoffs. This season, they have lost to only three teams at home: Seattle, Memphis and Denver. Tonight will be the Spurs' first game at the SBC Center in 11 days. "I'm looking forward to seeing our fans again, to feel those goose bumps they make you feel," Manu Ginobili said. "They're going to be very excited. It's going to help us a lot. "Many teams, after winning the first two games, can relax a little bit. But if you have great fans ... making you remember the situation you are in, it's going to help you." The crowd also hopes to remind the Spurs of their long-lost defense. After watching the teams total 454 points in the first two games, the Spurs' marketing department will outfit each fan today with a "D-Rag."

San Antonio Express-News: Jim Jackson finally had heard enough. After listening to people blame the Phoenix Suns' 0-2 deficit in the Western Conference finals on everything from turnovers to blown layups to poor shot selection, Jackson no longer could hide his lost-in-translation frustration. "I don't think anybody's really understanding what I'm saying," Jackson said. "It's not the offense. It's the defense."

San Antonio Express-News: And the Spurs' offensive dominance has been even more pronounced with the game on the line. In the fourth quarters of Games 1 and 2, they made 70percent of their field-goal attempts. That kind of efficiency enabled the Spurs to overcome fourth-quarter deficits in both games. "They've been the dominant team and the smart team and the methodical team in the last five minutes," Phoenix coach Mike D'Antoni said. "We have to do a better job there. With Joe (Johnson), we'll have fresher people in the last five minutes. Hopefully, that will help." Johnson's return from a broken bone under his left eye could pay off in a number of ways.

San Antonio Express-News: D'Antoni likely will have Johnson defending Spurs point guard Tony Parker at least some of the time, which will free Steve Nash from the physical challenge of keeping up with Parker on defense. Johnson also figures to be assigned some defensive work on Manu Ginobili, who was so vital to the Spurs in the deciding minutes of Game 2. The Spurs' defensive game plan in Johnson's absence matched Bowen on Suns power forward Shawn Marion. It was such an effective defensive stratagem the Spurs likely will stick with it, as long as Marion doesn't start knocking in 3-pointers with the accuracy he displayed against the Grizzlies. In that case, Bowen, the Spurs' best perimeter defender, might end up on Johnson.