TORONTO -- The Toronto Raptors tip-off the 2016-17 season Wednesday night when they host the Detroit Pistons.The Raptors enter the season following their most successful campaign in franchise history. Last year, Toronto set a club record for wins (56), won their third straight Atlantic Division title and advanced to the Eastern Conference finals for the first time in team history.Last year is last year. Every year is a new year, Raptors coach Dwane Casey said. Weve got to come out, scratch, execute, have the same mentality that weve got to be the hardest working team on the court that night to win. If we come out and just try to show our press clippings on the floor, its not going to work.Weve got to have that hard-work mentality and that hard hat mentality to be successful in the Eastern Conference.Toronto returns 11 players from last years team, including All-Stars DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry.Detroit starts the season without starting point guard Reggie Jackson, who will miss at least the first month because of tendonitis in his left knee.The Pistons ended a six-year playoff drought last season, finishing with a 44-38 record good for eighth in the Eastern Conference. They were swept by the eventual champion Cleveland Cavaliers in four games in the first round.Detroit, in its second season under Stan Van Gundy, finished 15th out of 30 in points scored per possession and 13th in points allowed per possession.In order to continue improving, general manager Jeff Bower went out and added to his clubs depth in the offseason giving 27-year-old power forward Jon Leuer a four-year deal in free agency, signed Boban Marjanovic away from the San Antonio Spurs via an offer sheet and added veteran point guard Ish Smith.To me what you dont want to do is have a ceiling on this group, Van Gundy told the Oakland Press. I look at it and say I have great respect out there for the other teams, I think the East has gotten better again. ... I get it, all but at the same time I look at it and say, Why not us? Why not?If were willing to do what it takes, and people take a step forward and we commit more defensively, why not us. Why does there have to be a ceiling on us. Why cant we be that team, contenders. I think the guys have high expectations.On Monday, the Pistons made a move to bolster its lineup claiming guard Beno Udrih off waivers from the Miami Heat and released guard Ray McCallum. Udrih is a 12-year veteran who averages 8.5 points and 3.4 assists in his career.The 6-foot-4 Slovenian played for the Heat and Memphis Grizzlies last season, averaging 4.7 points and 2.6 assists. Joshua Miles Jersey .ca look back at each of the Top 10 stories of 2013. Today, we look back at Boston Strong - a citys recovery from tragedy. Haason Reddick Jersey . Jane Virtanen scored two, and Alex Roach and Elliott Peterson rounded out the offence for the Hitmen (40-15-6). Brady Brassart chipped in with three assists. 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VAL DISERE, France -- In the absence of established stars like Lindsey Vonn and Tina Maze, new faces are breaking through on the womens World Cup circuit.Especially Ilka Stuhec.The Slovenian won a World Cup Alpine combined race on Friday for her third victory this season -- having never finished higher than fourth before this year.Sitting in third spot after the mornings downhill, she ended up .12 seconds ahead of Michelle Gisin and .16 clear of Soffia Goggia following the slalom on the Oreiller-Killy course.Stuhec was fourth in the overall World Cup standings, while Goggia was up to second with her fifth podium in seven races this season. The Italian also had a career best of fourth before this season began.That was not the only thing these two skiers have in common. Their careers were hampered by multiple knee operations: Five for Stuhec and four for Goggia.Reflecting on those injuries, Stuhec said: I wouldnt change a thing, even though sometimes it was really, really hard. I learned a lot about myself and people around me.Goggia said injuries helped to forge her character.Its the hunger I have at the start gate. Im aching for more, always, she said. I can be really satisfied with who I am. The last injury three years ago was really heavy and it took two years for me to come back. Tough times, but Im here now.There should be plenty more points on offer for both, considering the situation in womens skiing.Vonn, the four-time overall World Cup champion, was recovering from a broken arm, while Maze -- the 2013 World Cup champion -- has retired. Two-time World Cup winner Anna Veith (nee Fenninger) was working her way back from a serious right-knee injury.Goggia, who was behind American slalom specialist Mikaela Shiffrin in the standings, played down her chances.Its a bbig goal, Goggia said.dddddddddddd But at the moment not mine.Stuhecs two other wins this season were in downhill, both in Lake Louise.But prior to this year, she had finished only twice in the top five with a best of fourth in super-G three years ago.She changed her skis this summer, and her training.Most of the summer I spent with the mens speed team in Slovenia, Stuhec said. I tried to catch them every day and I was really building my confidence.Maze is Slovenias most famed skier and Stuhec never really became close with her.Honestly, I cannot say we are really friends, Stuhec said. Because she was most of the time separate from us, working alone.Gisin, meanwhile, clinched her first career podium. Her previous best was sixth last weekend in slalom in Sestriere.The Swiss skier was the younger sister of Dominique Gisin, who shared the 2014 Olympic downhill title with Maze.Big sister was watching from the bottom of the slope and burst into tears.She is helping me through so much, said Michelle Gisin, whose older brother Marc Gisin is a World Cup racer with a career best of fifth in downhill in January.Defending overall World Cup champion Lara Gut of Switzerland had a bad day, however.Sixth after the downhill run, she went off course midway through th