"With 16 games remaining in the regular season, the Suns, who have lost four games in a row, face an uphill battle for a playoff spot. The final stretch, Steve Nash says, will be challenging.

The margin for error is slim, and he knows the team is "in a really tough spot."

"We've got to win most of these games to have a shot at the playoffs," he said. "So we've got to play hard every night and see what we can come up with.

"There's going to be a lot of factors - guys are going to get demoralized, they'll start to splinter or start to give up, and we can't let that happen. We've got to be professional, we got to take pride in what we're doing and fight for each other and see how many of these games we can win."

The Suns, 11th in the Western Conference, will try to get above the .500 mark Friday against Golden State, a team they have defeated three times this season. Nash, who returned Wednesday night after missing two games because of a lower-abdominal injury, said health issues and other factors are making things difficult, but the team has to stay positive."