Steve Nash Injury Update: Skips Practice To Rest Back

Steve Nash has struggled with his health for several weeks now and in typical Nash fashion has played through it. The numbers show the decline:

His shooting percentage over the last 10 games is 41.5% vs 51% for the season overall.

"Obviously if you've got a bad back that limits anything you can do," said Gentry. "As I've said, Steve Nash out there at fifty percent is still better than half the guards in this league at a hundred."

Coach said that if he had it to do over again, he wouldn't have put Nash back into the game Friday against the Hawks. Nash left the game at the 5:28 mark in the 3rd quarter and didn't return until there was 3:22 left in the game. The Suns had a 9 point lead but Goran Dragic had just had his shot blocked and committed a foul.

That was enough for Steve who wanted to come in and help close out the game. He did just that with 48 seconds left at the end of a broken play with the shot clock set to expire when he somehow managed to square his body just enough to toss in a 14 foot prayer of a shot. Dagger.

Nash sat out of practice Saturday which Gentry said consisted mainly of offensive review and shooting, things that Steve didn't need to be involved in. The hope is that an extra day of rest and treatment will get him right.

Nash is expected to play on Sunday but if he doesn't Gentry will use a combination of Dragic and Grant Hill running the point.

The smart thing to do might be for Nash to take Sunday's game off as well. The Suns should be able to handle the Kings at home without him and that would give Steve three full days of rest before the Thunder game on Tuesday. But we all know Steve. He's going to play if he thinks he can help the team.

"It's difficult to miss games right now with the West being so tight so I'm just going to try to hang in there and do what I can to prepare to play and do what I can to contribute," Nash said. "I'm here to do whatever I can. As long as I'm not hurting the team I'll do what I can to contribute. Hopefully, I will get some relief from some of these areas that are bothering me."