ass and finishing near the basket. Jokic has been a cog in the Nuggets high-post offense and has shown the ability to pick and pop. Both are considered capable pas

NEW ORLEANS -- The New Orleans Pelicans were a MASH unit last season, so riddled with injuries that their players missed a combined total of 351 games, forcing coach Alvin Gentry to use 42 starting lineup combinations.Now that the calendar has flipped to the 2016-17 season -- with the home opener Wednesday night against the Denver Nuggets at Smoothie King Center -- Gentry wouldnt be blamed if he enlisted the aid of a French Quarter voodoo priestess as a way of ensuring the good health of his players, especially All-Star forward Anthony Davis.Davis, the first overall pick in the 2012 NBA Draft, never missed a game in his 40-game, NCAA championship, freshman season at Kentucky. But, in four NBA seasons, the Pelicans franchise player has missed 68 games with injuries. A medical flow chart indicates he has injured 13 body parts.Davis porcelain reputation can be explained in part by his pedal-to-the-metal style and his penchant for throwing his body into the expensive seats chasing down loose balls. But after Davis season-ending knee injury last March, which required arthroscopic surgery, forced him to withdraw from the U.S. Olympic team, he spent the summer fully rehabbing and continuing to add muscle to his athletic frame.Then, with the Pelicans playing in China on Oct. 12, Davis stepped on the foot of Houston Nenes foot and suffered a Grade 2 ankle sprain. But Davis returned for the preseason finale on Friday and is scheduled to start Wednesday.It doesnt concern me, Davis, who averaged 24.3 points, 10.3 rebounds and 2.0 blocks last year, said about his recent injury history. Its basketball. Injuries are part of basketball.It just seems that the Pelicans have more than most other teams. General manager Dell Demps said Tuesday he does not expect guard Tyreke Evans (knee) to hit the floor until December. Forward Quincy Pondexter (knee), who has not played since April 2015, has had a few setbacks in his recovery and is probably going to take a little bit longer.In addition, starting point guard Jrue Holiday is healthy but is caring for wife Lauren, who last month gave birth and then underwent surgery to remove a brain tumor. The Pelicans have placed no timetable on when Holiday will return to the team.Evans injury and Holidays unavailability contribute to the Pelicans decision to keep guard-forward Lance Stephenson, releasing Alonzo Gee even though Gee had a $1.2 million guaranteed contract.With the injuries to Tyreke and Jrue not being with the team, we felt we needed a little more playmaking, Demps said. (Lance) can go out and create and make plays for others.Anybody would be disappointed, but its just a part of it, Gentry said. You hope that everybody gets better.While much of the NBA seems to be enamored with small ball, the Nuggets appear to be getting bigger. Coach Mike Malone paired big men Jusuf Nurkic (7-0) and Nikola Jokic (6-11) during the preseason and appears ready to give it a try for real.Nurkic has shown the ability to draw fouls as the Nuggets work their offense through him, and he is strong on the offensive glass and finishing near the basket. Jokic has been a cog in the Nuggets high-post offense and has shown the ability to pick and pop. Both are considered capable passers.Theres definitely some Balkan buddy ball going on with those two guys, Malone said. They do look for each other, which is great. Theyre so skilled, and the great thing about Nikola is that he can space the floor, so its not like we have two guys that are stuck on the block, which takes away driving lanes from our perimeter players. The floor is open. Discount Asics NZ . The recently retired Stern was elected Friday to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and will be enshrined with the class of 2014 on Aug. Clearance Asics NZ Online . Fellow centre Pavel Datsyuk remains out because of a concussion. Zetterberg has 11 goals and 19 assists for a team-high 30 points, and Datsyuk has a team-high 12 goals and 11 assists. http://www.clearanceasicsnz.com/ . Third-seeded Murray had the easiest path to victory on New Years Eve, barely breaking a sweat during his 6-0, 6-0 win over 2,129th-ranked Qatari wildcard recipient Mousa Shanan Zayed. Asics NZ Sale . Datsyuk will miss Tuesdays game against New Jersey and could be sidelined longer, while Cleary will likely miss at least the next three games. Its been an injury-plagued season for Datsyuk, who has suited up for just 39 games. Asics NZ From China . Ronaldo produced a spectacular individual performance on Tuesday, scoring all three goals and guiding Portugal into the next years World Cup in Brazil with a 3-2 victory in Sweden. The Real Madrid forward has scored 66 goals in 2013, but the last three may be the boost he needs to upstage Messi after FIFA unexpectedly extended the voting period for the Ballon dOr to Nov. TORONTO -- The last time Mitch Marner remembers attending a Maple Leafs game as a fan, Mats Sundin returned to Air Canada Centre as a Vancouver Canuck.Over seven years later, Sundin was back to see his No. 13 raised to the rafters, and Marner was there, too, scoring his first NHL goal to help Toronto roll over the Boston Bruins 4-1 for its first win of the season on Saturday night.Marner got his first goal in only his second game, joined on the scoresheet by fellow rookie and Toronto native Connor Brown. Their efforts came on the heels of Auston Matthews historic debut, when he became the first player in the modern NHL to score four goals in his first game.Its a lot of excitement and obviously theres going to be (a) learning curve and growing pains throughout the way, but theyve been playing great so far, teammate James van Riemsdyk said of the youth movement.Brown and Marner opened the scoring about 10 minutes apart, landing the Leafs in the record books once more. Toronto became the first team since expansion in 1967-68 to have rookies combine for the first six goals to start a season, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.Brown had the games first goal after barely two minutes, joined shortly after by the 19-year-old Marner and then van Riemsdyk a few minutes after that.The fourth overall pick of the 2015 draft, Marner took a pass from Tyler Bozak just outside the Boston blue line, gained the offensive zone with space and fired a shot far-side past goaltender Anton Khudobin.A native of nearby Thornhill, Ontario, Marner followed with an exuberant celebration.To finally be playing in front of these fans for real, its pretty crazy, Marner said. And for the first one to go in in front of them, its kind of sweet.Outside of Matthews, Marner was perhaps Torontos most dangerous player in a season-opening overtime loss to Ottawa on Wednesday. He had six shots in the 5-4 overtime defeat, following that up withh a goal and four more shots in 15-plus minutes against the Bruins on Saturday.ddddddddddddHes shown a knack for getting behind the oppositions defense, finding a seam and some space for his first goal on Saturday.Thats just good anticipation and good smarts where he can pick his spots to use his speed to get himself in those situations, van Riemsdyk said.Marner said hed give the puck from his first goal to his parents.Anton Khudobin allowed four goals on 20 shots for Boston. David Pastrnak scored his third goal in two games this season.Overall, not a good enough effort on our part, said Bruins coach Claude Julien. And at the end of the night, you dont deserve the win.The worst team in the NHL last season, the Leafs have quickly shown themselves to be a much faster and highly skilled entity in the early days of this season, led by Marner, Matthews and 20-year-old William Nylander. Often that youth shows itself in less effective ways though, including a messy second period in which Torontos sloppiness with the puck led to chances and sustained offensive zone time for Boston.Id like us to obviously take better care of the puck and so well learn how to do that, Leafs coach Mike Babcock said afterward.Frederik Andersen gave up only one goal on 25 shots following his wobbly five-goal outing in Wednesdays season opener.Matthews was quiet on Saturday after his unparalleled showing earlier in the week. He was held point-less and finished with only two shots in nearly 17 minutes.Game notes The Maple Leafs retired 17 sweaters in a pre-game ceremony, altering a long-standing team policy where jersey numbers were honored but not retired.UP NEXTBruins: Conclude their season-opening three-game trip Monday night at Winnipeg.Maple Leafs: Begin a three-game trip Wednesday night at Winnipeg. ' ' '