A healthy Grant Hill — and his ability to score from mid-range and guard the perimeter — was a key component in the Suns’ plans to finally take down the Spurs this year.

Changes haven’t worked vs. Spurs

Bordow: D’Antoni’s stubbornness could be his undoing

Read Jerry Brown's blog, 'Rim Shots'

But the Suns didn’t have a healthy Hill while losing the first two playoff games in San Antonio, and likely won’t have him at all for a must-win Game 3 tonight at US Airways Center.

Hill didn’t practice again Thursday and had a precautionary MRI exam, hoping to shed more light on exactly what he’s dealing with. But he hasn’t been able to go 100 percent since over-striding during a fast break attempt 10 days ago against Golden State. His abdominal/groin problems are no better.

Shooting is painful for Hill. So are running, moving laterally and any other quick reactions.

Coach Mike D’Antoni said Hill won’t play tonight in Game 3 unless he is 100 percent, which is exactly what he said before Hill pronounced himself ready an hour before tipoff in Game 2. Hill sounded less interested in begging his way into the lineup as he did Tuesday — when he played 20 scoreless ineffective, minutes.

“They said, ‘Don’t try to be Superman, don’t try to play if it’s bothering me,’ ” Hill said. “I think I tried that the last two games. I can’t let the emotion of the moment make that decision for me. I’ve got to be honest about it. I just couldn’t really move out there, couldn’t run and it got progressively worse as it went on.”

Hill’s decision to play in San Antonio didn’t appear to hurt the Suns for the most part. He played most of his minutes in the first half when the Suns raced to early leads. But the Suns have struggled to score on the fast break and Hill was on the floor for the first five minutes of Phoenix’s abysmal third quarter in Game 2, when the Suns went scoreless and gave up the lead for good.

Without Hill in the second half of Game 2, the Suns turned to Boris Diaw to guard Tony Parker in the fourth quarter and the Suns made a 14-2 run to get back in the game. Parker and Diaw were boyhood friends in the French Athletic Academy.

“Boris did a good job when we asked him to guard Tony,” Suns general manager Steve Kerr said. “No one knows (Tony’s) game better than Boris.”

A FRESH START?

Leandro Barbosa would get the start if Hill can’t go, three nights after missing all seven of his shots from the field in 24 minutes and registering his first scoreless game of the season.

Kerr said Barbosa will be fine, and that he can relate to what it’s like to have poor shooting nights amid the glare of the postseason.

“You’re not making your shots and you feel like everyone is watching you,” Kerr said. “You have moments when you can’t buy a shot and you feel like the sky is falling … but you have to stay aggressive and do other things … defend, take a charge, run the floor, and that’s usually when things turn around.”

Starting may help change the scenery. The Suns are 10-2 when Barbosa starts and he’s averaged 21.4 points per game in those 12 games — shooting 54.1 percent from the field and a red-hot 48.7 percent from 3-point range. And Manu Ginobili isn’t around to defend until the game is about seven minutes old.

D’FIANT

D’Antoni didn’t back down from his rhetoric one iota on Thursday, repeating his claim that the Suns are the better team and joking his way through the media session.

When a reporter asked him what he would tell Suns fans who were out on the ledge after Phoenix blew a pair of 14-point leads in San Antonio, D’Antoni smiled and said, “Go ahead and jump. We’ve got six million people here. It’s overcrowded anyway.”

He then quickly added: “You know what? I understand it. I’m ready to jump out, too. I’m on the ledge with them, but I’m not going. I’m going to crawl back in. We’re going to play, and we’re going to bust them. That’s our mindset. We still don’t have any doubt we can win this series.

“We felt like we had the upper hand, we just haven’t come away with the victories yet.”

BASH-A-BOWEN?

While the Spurs haven’t shied away from fouling Phoenix’s poorer free-throw shooters (Shaquille O’Neal, Brian Skinner) the Suns haven’t done the same — and the Spurs have a few viable candidates in Bruce Bowen (65 percent this season), Kurt Thomas (66 percent this season, 58 percent since becoming a Spur) and Fabricio Oberto (61 percent).

“The series is still young,” guard Raja Bell said. “We’re aware of the stats.”

The “Hack-A-Shaq” backfired on Spurs coach Gregg Popovich in Game 2 when O’Neal made five of six free throws during a third quarter when the Suns made only three field goals.

After yanking O’Neal late in the first and second quarters to avoid the tactic, D’Antoni let O’Neal shoot and was rewarded for the confidence.

“It should be a compliment to us that they can’t stop us (in the) half-court,” D’Antoni said.

Kerr added: “Pop is a guy who takes a great pride in defense more than anything, and I’m sure it isn’t easy for him, psychologically, to throw up the white flag and say ‘OK, we can’t make a stop here.’

“But there is a method to the madness. It’s about disrupting our flow, we’re a good rhythm team … it worked in Game 1, didn’t really work in Game 2, let’s see what works in Game 3.”

BONUS SHOTS

No NBA team has ever rallied from 0-3 down to win a seven-game series.

Including Games 1 and 2, the Spurs have held 68 of 84 opponents under 100 points (81 percent).

Suns guard Steve Nash said using the word “panic” to describe his team in the third period of Game 2 was too strong.

“We rushed a little. We lost our spacing, we didn’t read and react and the bottom line is we missed shots.

“I’m not going to worry about what happened down there. If we stick to the game plan and get a win we can start feeling good about ourselves quickly.”