LOS ANGELES -- Steve Nash will be out of the Los Angeles Lakers lineup for at least two weeks with nerve root irritation. The Lakers announced the latest injury setback for the two-time NBA MVP on Monday after Nash consulted with a back specialist. Nash played just 13 minutes in the Lakers loss to Minnesota on Sunday night before sitting out with pain in his back and hamstrings. He is expected to receive an epidural block on Tuesday, and will be evaluated in 10 days. "Im a little emotional," Nash said after Sundays game. "Its hard. I really want to play, and I really want to play the way Im accustomed to playing. To be so limited is frustrating, and also to not know (when) kind of a clean-ish bill of health is (possible) is a little daunting, too." Nash is the NBAs oldest player at 39. Although the Canadian star still shows flashes of his heyday as arguably the best point guard of his generation, he has struggled with injuries since shortly after joining the Lakers in summer 2012. He missed 32 of the Lakers 82 games last season, breaking his left leg in the second game before struggling with injuries affecting his back, hip and hamstrings down the stretch. He also missed Los Angeles last two playoff games despite getting several epidural shots for pain management. Nash has struggled with back pain for years, but his broken leg caused new woes. "Its nerves coming from my back," Nash said. "You could call it the back, you could call it the nerves. Im getting the pain in the hamstring. Its basically the same thing from the end of last year." The Lakers have attempted to be careful this fall with Nash, who is under contract for $18 million through next season. Despite sitting out two games already this season to conserve his health on back-to-back stretches of the schedule, Nash is averaging just 6.7 points and 4.8 assists. "Im concerned," Lakers coach Mike DAntoni said after Sundays game. "He was struggling physically tonight. You could see it on his face, and thats why I took him out. We shut him down, more or less, and he was struggling. .. Im hoping (Nash will recover), like everyone else is." Steve Blake, Jordan Farmar and Jodie Meeks all will get more playing time in the absence of both members of Los Angeles decorated backcourt. The Lakers have lost five of seven without Kobe Bryant, who still hasnt returned to practice from surgery on his torn Achilles tendon in April. Blake is off to a strong start to the season while playing both guard positions, averaging 10.0 points and 5.0 assists. Meeks is the Lakers leading scorer this season with 12.8 points per game. "I hate to see him struggling like that with injuries," Blake said of Nash. "Hopefully we can get him back." Los Angeles hosts New Orleans on Tuesday night. Jonas Jerebko Jersey . Future Hall of Famer Ricky Ray is in his prime and back for a third season in double blue. The 34-year old was magnificent in 2013, throwing for just under 2,900 yards despite missing eight games, tossing an impressive 21 touchdowns against just two interceptions, completing 66 per cent of his passes in the process. Jeff Hornacek Jersey . Which is to say, the top of this years draft class is not as dynamic or exciting as the 2013 class of Nate MacKinnon, Sasha Barkov, Jonathan Drouin and Seth Jones and its not as strikingly promising as the highly-anticipated 2015 slate of Connor McDavid, Jack Eichel and Noah Hanifin. http://www.cheapjazzjerseys.info/Authent...rs-Jazz-Jersey/. Vonn "reopened" the idea of competing in the season-opening World Cup event on Oct. 26-27 in Soelden, Austria after returning to the slopes last month in Portillo, Chile. Adrian Dantley Jersey . The club says its first-choice centre back "underwent medical tests on Wednesday morning" which confirmed he has injured his right hamstring. The injury was caused in the second minute of Tuesdays 4-1 league win over Real Sociedad in the Camp Nou when teammate Sergio Busquets accidentally struck Mascherano just above the knee with an outstretched boot. Pete Maravich Jersey .com) - The red-hot Los Angeles Kings take aim at an eighth straight victory on Monday night as they wrap up a road trip versus the Calgary Flames.Womens hockey is often seen as a battle between two powerhouses: Canada and the United States. Anything less than gold for either nation is considered a disappointment. Yet for Switzerland, advancing to the semifinal might be a victory in itself. Switzerland got by Russia on Saturday in their quarter-final, winning 2-0. The Swiss, led by their goalie Florence Schelling, will face Canada in the second semifinal on Monday at 12 p.m. ET, streaming live at cbc.ca/olympics. The United States plays Sweden in the earlier semifinal at 7:30 a.m ET after the Swedes beat Finland in a hard-fought quarter-final. Of course, the odds are heavily stacked in favour of the Canadians. Canada and Switzerland have met twice in womens Olympic ice hockey, with Canada winning both meetings. Their most recent Olympic encounter was their opening game in Sochi, in which Canada won 5-0. Their other Olympic match took place in a group match at Vancouver 2010, in which Canada routed the Swiss 10-1, with nine different players scoring. To make matters worse for the Swiss, theyre facing a Canadian squad that looks stronger than ever. History is not on Switzerlands side: Canada has not lost a match in Olympiic womens hockey since Nagano 1998, winning its last 18 games.dddddddddddd Canada has now won the gold medal in each of the previous three Olympic Games. Despite the overwhelming odds against them, the Swiss have reasons to feel good about their Sochi experience: Switzerland is guaranteed its best finish ever in womens Olympic hockey. Its previous best result was a fifth-place finish in Vancouver. Switzerlands head coach, René Kammerer, is feeling tremendous pride in his teams performance in Sochi. "I am so proud of the staff and the players. They have all put so much hard work in to this," Kammerer said. "We put up so much fight throughout that match and the goaltending and all of the teams performance was great."Kammerer added that he felt his teams good preparation ended up helping the Swiss do better this time around. "We had good preparation going into this game, especially about how to handle the noise from the home fans. We will enjoy this victory but we cant just simply tell our girls to win the next match. Plan A is to win and then we are guaranteed at least a silver. "I hope people know how dangerous we are now." ' ' '