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SAN ANTONIO (AP) – Chris Paul turned 23 on Tuesday. The New Orleans Hornets’ talented point guard said he had a low-key birthday, just hanging out with his teammates.

The big surprise party might happen tonight, courtesy of Paul and his team if they can beat the defending champion San Antonio Spurs yet again by picking up a Game 3 win to take a 3-0 lead in the Western Conference semifinals.

“They say you’re supposed to win all your home games. The series doesn’t start until the home team loses,” Paul said Wednesday.

The Hornets won in dominant fashion in Games 1 and 2 as the Spurs turned over the ball, missed open shots and looked slow next to the energetic Hornets.

“It sounds, like, easy, but we just have to play better,” Tony Parker said. “They just outplayed us the first two games and now we’re playing at home and we have to make more shots and play better defense.”

Parker and Manu Ginobili said they expect the Spurs to be more physical in Game 3.

“We’re going to have to realize that it’s the only way, if we’re going to have a shot, that without being physical it’s not going to happen,” Ginobili said, adding that his sore left ankle continues to improve.

And if they can’t drive the lane, Parker said they’ll just have to trust other shooters.

“Every year we won the championship, we got a lot of guys making shots,” he said.

Parker said he’s taking a positive perspective and looking at being down 0-2 as a “great challenge.” Now, he said, it’s the Spurs’ turn to show they want to win it all.

The Hornets have.

New Orleans coach Byron Scott called his young team “hungry”and said they’ve thrived in their underdog role this season.

“We’re not only playing the champions, we’re playing for respect, because we felt all season long like we really haven’t gotten it,” he said.

This matchup between the dynastic Spurs and the emerging Hornets has indeed been billed as one of experience versus youth.

So far, Ginobili said, the experience part hasn’t worked so well for San Antonio.

“Even with the kind of experience that we all say we have, they played smarter,” he said. “They can play faster or sometimes stronger, but at least we should play smart. So we are not basically doing anything right so we’ve really got to realize that we’ve got to improve.”

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AP Sports Writer Brett Martel in New Orleans contributed to this report.