Suns’ Nash dealing with rib injury

Steve Nash, who has been plagued the past few years by a rib that has a tendency to slip out of place, is dealing with that issue again, the Suns point guard said Friday.

The injury is not serious enough to keep the two-time MVP sidelined, but it is causing soreness and tightness in his right (shooting) shoulder.

“I don’t have very good range of motion in my shoulder right now, but that’s OK,” said Nash, who added he feels the injury most when shooting. “I can contribute in other ways until my shoulder settles down a little bit.”

Suns trainer Aaron Nelson said Nash woke up with irritation in the shoulder recently (there was no single incident that led to the problem) and that Nash is undergoing treatment to relieve the pain.

On fire through Phoenix’s first seven games, making 59.2 percent of his shots while attempting nearly 15 field goals per game, Nash is neither shooting well nor often now.

He was just 2-of-6 Tuesday against New York and 3-of-11 Thursday vs. Chicago.

Nash, though, isn’t overly concerned.

“I’ll be fine,” he said.

Nash experienced similar symptoms in February and missed four games with what the team called shoulder inflammation.

Suns at Rockets

6:30 p.m. today, KUTP (Ch. 45)