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NEW ORLEANS -- Its Holiday season in New Orleans all right. One of the Pelicans primary players is back and already helping them win.Jrue Holiday scored 21 points in his first action this season, Anthony Davis had his latest stellar outing with 38 points, nine rebounds and four blocks, and the Pelicans beat the Portland Trail Blazers 113-101 on Friday night.I head a great first game, Holiday said. The thrill was there. It felt good, being a part of a team.Holiday made his season debut after missing the first 12 games to care for his wife, retired soccer star Lauren Holiday, who had brain surgery last month only weeks after giving birth to the couples first child, a daughter.He wound up playing just more than 23 minutes hitting an array of jumpers, including a 3, as well as driving floaters and layups. He finished with seven assists, none more crowd-pleasing than his crisp bounce-pass to a cutting Davis, who finished the play with a thunderous two-handed dunk.Holiday had been in constant contact with coaches and studying game video while on leave, so he wasnt surprised that he quickly got into the rhythm of the offense.There are some new faces around here, but at the same time its the same system, Holiday said. The part that I was really worried about was conditioning. I really thought that I was behind. Maybe I was just excited for this game. I felt like I could play forever.Terrence Jones added 15 points, and Tim Frazier had 12 for the Pelicans. New Orleans built the lead up to 20 in the fourth quarter and cruised to the finished. Theyve won three of five after an 0-8 start.Damian Lillard scored 27 points, and CJ McCollum 24 for Portland, which has lost three straight to fall to 7-7. Mason Plumlee added 13 points and 12 rebounds for the Trail Blazers, who never got closer than eight points in the second half.We obviously are not playing the best basketball right now, but we are still .500, said Portland forward Ed Davis, who had 11 rebounds in a starting role that required him to attempt to defend his Pelicans namesake. Its not like we are on an eight-game losing streak.We are not in panic mode, he added. Well be all right, man.TIP-INSTrail Blazers: Maurice Harkless scored 10 points, but went 2 of 7 from 3-point range, from where the Blazers went 12 of 34 as a team. ... Portland has scored 100 or more points in 12 of its first 14 games. ... The Blazers, which lost 126-109 in Houston on Thursday night, dropped to 3-4 on the road.Pelicans: Alvin Gentry reached his 800th career game as an NBA head coach. ... New Orleans won its second straight home game after starting 0-5 on its own floor. ... Center Alexis Ajinca sat out with a sore left shoulder.HOLIDAY CHEERThe crowd bellowed, Jruuuuue! as Holiday checked in, and he wasted no time getting involved, assisting on Jones layup the first time he handled the ball on the offensive end.Within four minutes on the court, Holiday scored five points to go with a rebound and assists, and even a block on Noah Vonlehs dunk attempt.Anthony Davis called Holiday instant offense.He comes in, makes great reads, makes plays for himself or others -- and also does it on the defensive end, Davis said. In my eyes, hes one of the top point guards in the league and it showed.DOMINANT DAVISDavis was making shots from all over the court, hitting a pair of 3s to go with usual leaners, floaters, layups and mid-range jumpers.The Pelicans made their first significant push in the final three minutes of the first half. Portland was down 51-47 after Plumlees 16-foot jumper, but Davis responded with a 16-footer of his own that sparked a 13-4 run to close out the half. Davis added six more points during the spurt, hitting a jumper, floater and spinning a reverse layup off the glass with McCollum climbing on his shoulders. Davis also rejected his third Lillard shot of the half, and New Orleans led 64-51 as the horn sounded to end the second quarter.NEW LOOKHoliday wore goggles as a precaution after missing the last nine games of last season because of an inadvertent elbow he took to the head, fracturing his orbital eye wall.He said he hasnt decided yet how long hell wear them.We won so Im probably going to play in them Saturday night, he said. I think I look dorky. Ive already been made fun of by half of the team. Thats OK as long as we get the win.UP NEXTTrail Blazers: Visit Brooklyn on Sunday.Pelicans: Host Charlotte on Saturday night. Adidas Nmd Ireland . They reached the 100-point plateau for the fourth time in five games, bested the visiting Trail Blazers by 34 in the paint and scored 19 of the final 25 points in regulation. Yeezy Powerphase Ireland . The Vikings announced Thursday that Priefer will be one of seven holdovers from the previous staff, along with offensive line coach Jeff Davidson, wide receivers coach George Stewart and others. Norv Turner will mark his 30th year of coaching in the NFL as the offensive co-ordinator, as widely reported for weeks, and George Edwards will be the defensive co-ordinator. http://www.cheapnmdsneakersireland.com/adidas-nmd-mens-cheap-ireland.html . "Thank you for the warm welcome," Beckham said on an 80-degree February morning. In this case, it was soccer weather. The sport moved a step closer to returning to South Florida on Wednesday, when Beckham confirmed he has exercised his option to purchase a Major League Soccer expansion franchise in Miami. Latest Adidas Basketball Shoes . The mixed zone is not a place to make friends. Adidas Basketball Shoes Ireland . Luis Suarezs double powered Liverpool to a 4-0 victory over Fulham, and Southampton easily overcame Hull 4-1 to continue the south coast clubs impressive start to the season. Liverpool and Southampton sent Chelsea down to fourth place as the west London club was held to 2-2 at home. Smack Smacks first win in eight starts this year also was the biggest victory of his career, a narrow decision over Shotgun Kowboy in an oddly run edition of the Grade 3, $300,000 Prairie Meadows Cornhusker Handicap on Saturday afternoon.On paper, Smack Smack looked too slow and insufficiently accomplished to win, but that is why he paid $34.20. There was one thing Smack Smack had going for him, if you stared long enough at his past performance lines, and that was the races nine-furlong distance: Smack Smack entered the Cornhusker with two wins and a third from four races at 1-1/8 miles, and he needed every foot of it to prevail.The Cornhusker unfolded at a very modest tempo, with nearly the entire field stacked across the track a half-furlong from the first turn. Shotgun Kowboy came through along the inside to grab the lead, going his first quarter-mile in 23.64 seconds and a half in a mild 48.78 as favorite Smaverlous pressed two paths off the fence and well-backed Cyrus Alexander raced three wide. The pace barely quickened through six furlongs in 1:13.35, and midway around the turn, Smaverlous pushed to the front and took a clear lead, with Shotgun Kowboy apparently fading on the fence.At the quarter pole, it briefly looked like a showdown between SMaverlous and Cyrus Alexander, but Cyrus Alexander suddenly went flat and backed up between horses, while SMaverlous, rather than pull away, began to lose his lead. Rivals swarmed inside and out, and it was Smack Smack on the far outside going slightly better than Shotgun Kowboy, who had plugged and plugged along the inside and nearly got back up to win.Smack Smack, racing mid-pack until making his move in the homestretch under Shane Laviolette, won by a neck, with Shotgun Kowboy just a head better than 14-1 shot Pain and Misery, who had rallied from eighth to get into the thick of things at the stretch call. Smaverlous checked in fourth, followed by Code West, Hawaakom, Cyrus Alexander, Domains Rap, and Eton Ridge. Winning time for the 1-1/8 miles on a fast track was 1:50.28.Don Von Hemel trains Smack Smack for his owner and breeder, Dreeam Walkin Farms.dddddddddddd Smack Smack, fourth in the local Cornhusker prep last out, is a 5-year-old gelding by Closing Argument and out the Victory Gallop mare, Smack Madam. He ran his record to 9-3-7 from 26 starts with career earnings of nearly $750,000.Candip captures Iowa SprintCandip bounced back from a poor race last out at Churchill Downs to win the $100,000 Iowa Sprint.Stalking and pressing on the outside after breaking from post 8, Candip took the lead from Dream Saturday at the stretch call and beat that rival by three-quarters of a length, with Wilbo just a nose farther back in third.The 5-year-old Candip, claimed for $32,000 in May 2015 by his current connections, owner K Town Partners and trainer Mike Tomlinson, hit peak form over the winter at Gulfstream Park, when he won a high-end allowance race and finished a close second to the good sprinter X Y Jet in the Gulfstream Park Sprint.But returning from a layoff May 19 in a Churchill allowance race, Candip appeared to have reverted to a lesser version of himself, finishing a distant sixth after a wide trip. That race, it now seems, merely gave Candip fuel for his return to stakes competition, as he traveled forwardly from the start under Terry Thompson, always racing on the bridle while relaxed.I was able to watch and see how it set up down on the inside, Thompson said. I was able to sit to the quarter pole and when I called on him he ran big down the lane.Dream Saturday set a strong pace of 22.11 and 44.60 seconds, and held firm to the finish, but he did not have quite enough left to contain the winner, who ran six furlongs on a fast track in 1:08.98. W.B. Smudge got a pocket trip and loomed past the quarter pole, but had no late zip and finished a well-beaten fourth as the second choice, just edging tepid favorite Storm Power.Candip ($10.60), a gelding, is by Candy Ride out of the Storm Cat mare Indefinable, and was bred in Kentucky by WinStar Farm. His career record now stands at 22-7-4-2. ' ' '