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METAIRE, La. -- Reinforcements are on the horizon for the New Orleans Pelicans.Jrue Holiday will return to practice Thursday and play in his first game of the season Friday against the Portland Trail Blazers. The veteran point guard is expected to arrive in New Orleans on Tuesday and will not make the trip to Orlando for the matchup Wednesday with the Orlando Magic.Holiday, 26, has been away from the team the whole season in order to tend to his wife , USWNT soccer star Lauren Holiday, who is recovering from the birth of the couples first child and surgery to remove a benign tumor from the right side of her brain.We love the Holidays, Pelicans general manager Dell Demps said. Lauren and Jrue, and JT is their daughter -- everybody cant wait to meet her. Hes just a great person.Just bringing him back and getting him back with the group, from a social standpoint, [is] first. From a basketball standpoint, we dont want to put pressure on him and make him feel like hes the savior. [Its] going to be a transition for him coming back, getting all the kinks out. But we hope to expedite that transition.Tyreke Evans also returned to non-contact activity at practice Tuesday after missing the past nine months in recovery from a third right knee procedure in the span of nine months.Its just good news for them both coming back, Pelicans star Anthony Davis said. Its good for us that two key components to our team that were able to get back really soon. Its good for everybody. Well try to get this thing going.Demps said Evans is in great shape, but there is no timetable for his return to game action.It will all be based on how his rehab goes in the next days, week, he said.Demps said Holiday, who was limited to a combined 74 games in his first two seasons in New Orleans because of right leg injuries, is 100 percent healthy and has maintained his conditioning with the help of a Pelicans assistant and a strength and conditioning coach.The last-place Pelicans (2-9) expect a gradual return for Holiday as he acclimates to an NBA schedule.Pelicans coach Alvin Gentry said Holidays role, including whether or not he will start immediately, has not yet been determined.I just know we wont play him 35 minutes the first game back, Gentry said. Were not going to do anything like that. I think weve got to be smart about it. Hes been working out twice a day. Hes in great shape. Theres a big difference in being in great shape and being in basketball shape. We just have to make sure he gets to basketball shape.Jrue is very good offensively and very good defensively, Davis said. Hes going to bring that passion, that energy, that fight. Its going to be good to have him back on the floor for us, to have Jrue being Jrue. It will probably take him a couple games to get back [to his old self], but as long as hes on the floor.Demps said Evans initial range following an osteochondral autograft transfer system (OATS) procedure in February to replace cartilage in three areas of his knee was 8-10 months.Quincy Pondexter, who missed all of last season following two left knee surgeries, remains out.With Quincy, we should get a better understanding if not the end of this week then the beginning of next week, Demps said. And then well hopefully get him back on the court. Adam Pelech Jersey . The Lightning are 2-0 so far on a four-game road trip, giving the club five straight wins as the guest and improving Tampas away record this season to 11-8-2. Bryan Trottier Jersey . Carey Price didnt, but he still came out on top against one of his rivals for the No. 1 job at the Sochi Games. The Anahim Lake, B.C., native was stellar in making 39 saves in his home province and Lars Eller got credit for a bizarre short-handed winner as the Canadiens defeated the Canucks 4-1. http://www.islanderssale.com/authentic-thomas-hickey-islanders-jersey/ . After a first half in which he thought "the lid was on the basket," the Toronto Raptors coach watched his squad mount a second half surge to defeat the Cleveland Cavaliers 98-91. Josh Bailey Jersey .Y. -- Buffalo Bills coach Doug Marrone has drawn on his Syracuse connections once again by hiring Rob Moore to take over as receivers coach. Andrew Ladd Islanders Jersey . First off, the fans ripped the Cubbies introduction of a fuzzy new kid-friendly mascot named "Clark". If there ever was a time that highlighted the benefits of creative relief pitcher usage, its the 2016 postseason. Weve seen a teams closer,?Kenley Jansen,?come into the game in the seventh to pitch the longest stint of his career, and weve seen the teams ace get the save. Weve seen Aroldis Chapman used in the eighth twice in three games. Weve seen Andrew Miller?used as Clevelands personal 911 service, coming in any time between the fifth and the eighth and throwing 17 1/3 scoreless innings with 30 strikeouts this postseason.People talk about killing the win, but if theres any stat in baseball that deserves capital punishment, its the save. Lets kill it, blow it up, burn the pieces and send the ashes by rocket into the sun.Well-designed evaluative stats, by their very nature, measure events tthat lead teams to win games.dddddddddddd. Home runs arent valuable just because someone declared they are valuable, but because theyre the event in baseball that most leads to runs being scored. Saves, on the other hand, are an accounting fiction. The closer role as it currently stands exists not to maximize team wins but to maximize the number of saves.It didnt get this way overnight. Baseballs modern closer role started in 1977, when Cubs manager Herman Franks nearly stopped using Bruce Sutter when the team was behind. After he was used 23 times when the team was behind in his 2.70 ERA rookie year, Sutter was used when behind only 19 times the next four years. ' ' '