NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE Phoenix needs more fight tonight against Mavericks

Steve Nash said the absence of guard Raja Bell is one reason for the struggles.
PHOENIX (AP) -- Sporting a small wound over his right eye, Phoenix point guard Steve Nash was backed up against a wall as he met with reporters after practice Monday.
That's where Nash's Suns will find themselves if they don't play better in Game 4 of the Western Conference finals tonight. They're feeling bruised, but not beaten, after a 95-88 Game 3 loss to Dallas Sunday left them trailing 2-1. Afterward Nash, who got cut early in the game, said the Suns needed to show more fight. On Monday, Nash said he wasn't trying to send a message through the media because he had told his teammates the same thing.
The mode
"I think at times we've been a little too passive," Nash said.
The Suns have to change that quickly or they will be eliminated one step short of the NBA Finals for the second consecutive season.
"It's a must-win-game situation [tonight]," Phoenix coach Mike D'Antoni said. "We win that, it's a two-out-of-three series. Obviously they have home court, but we've shown that we can win there."
Nash said one reason for the Suns' struggles is the absence of guard Raja Bell, who has missed the last two games with a strained left calf. Bell is not expected to play in Game 4.
Bell scored only eight points in Phoenix's 121-118 Game 1 victory at Dallas. But he brings a fire that the Suns have lacked in the last two games. It was Bell who floored the Lakers' Kobe Bryant in Game 5 of the opening round, drawing a flagrant foul and a one-game suspension. The Suns won that game and the next two to rally from a 3-1 deficit.
Bell said he agreed with Nash's assessment that the Suns had their shoulders slumped in the second half Sunday night, when they scored only 36 points.
"I did see it a little bit, and I don't know what to attribute that to," Bell said. "I think we have to find that [energy] from whoever's suited up."
Phoenix seemed to slump after an altercation late in the first half between the Mavericks' Jason Terry and the Suns' Tim Thomas. Thomas had drawn a flagrant foul from Josh Howard, who hit Thomas in the face as the Phoenix forward drove to the basket. As Thomas headed to the foul line, he walked through a group of Mavs, and he and Terry exchanged shoves. Both players were assessed technicals.
"It's just a situation where we're standing together and he walks right through us," said Terry, who had been suspended for one game for throwing a punch in the second round against San Antonio. "Hey, stuff happens in a game. It's the Western Conference finals and guys are going to do whatever it takes.
"That was just a situation where it was kind of edgy," Terry said. "The momentum was shifting either way. They benefited from it more than we did."
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