ANAHEIM, Calif. -- It was one of the best days of Pavel Francouz's life.

Francouz finalized a $4 million, two-year contract extension with the Colorado Avalanche, and then made 26 saves to record his first NHL shutout in the team's 1-0 victory over the Anaheim Ducks on Friday night.

"A lot of good stuff happened to me today," Francouz said. "It is a day to remember and a great feeling for us. I have to thank the guys because they played really well in front of me today. They blocked a lot of shots, and they were desperately trying to get the shutout for me."

It was the 27th career game for Francouz, who has taken over since Philipp Grubauer sustained a lower-body injury in a Feb. 15 loss to Los Angeles. The 29-year-old Czech goaltender is 2-1-1 with a 1.80 goals-against average as the Avs' top goalie.

"Once you play more games in a row, you just start feeling better," he said. "You don't have to think that much you just go with it."

The Avalanche have won a season-high five straight on the road. Their 19 victories and 40 points away from home are third in the league.

Colorado's victory -- its 10th in its past 14 games -- and Dallas' loss to St. Louis moved the Avalanche into second place in the Central Division. They have 77 points and trail the Blues by three points.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Before training camp, as nine new Oklahoma City Thunder players were getting to know one another while the organization itself was recalibrating to a post-Russell Westbrook world, coach Billy Donovan sat down with the three point guards on the roster and presented a bold plan.

They -- being Chris Paul, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Dennis Schroder -- are three of Donovan's five best players. And he needed to find a way to play them all as much as possible, which would probably include playing all three of them together.

Paul is listed at 6-foot-1. Schroder is a generous 6-1. And Gilgeous-Alexander is the giant of the group at 6-5. None of the three is listed at more than 180 pounds. They're all playmakers. They're all scorers. They all thrive with the ball in their hands.

"If we moved it, if we shared it and if we played together, it would be really hard to guard," Donovan told them. He saw it simplified: Two of the three would always being playing against defenders scrambling to close out on the perimeter.

"And you're all really good at that," he said.

Despite the positional and vertical challenges of it, Donovan wanted to try it. The counterlogic was obvious, and when Donovan floated the idea publicly at media day, it was met with heavy skepticism.

"I hoped it would work," Paul said, leaning on the word "hope" pretty heavily. "We all have different personalities -- you never know what different guys' goals are and whatnot -- but I was excited about it. The biggest thing was that Billy sat us all down. We met, us three and Billy, and talked about the possibilities of what it could be, and thankfully all of us are giving up a little bit here and there for the success of the team."

Now, Donovan's plan hasn't just been validated 56 games into the season, with a sparkling 34-22 record and fresh off the lineup's dismantling of the Denver Nuggets in crunch time for a 113-101 statement win on Friday. The strategy has redefined the Thunder's season -- and the possibility to hope for something more ahead.

The Thunder are the league's undisputed clutch-time maestros, with a league-best plus-27.3 net rating in a league-high 38 games that feature a score within five points in the last five minutes of regulation. They are 25-13 in clutch-time games, with the best offense in the clutch at an absurd 123.5 points per 100 possessions. Paul leads the league in clutch scoring (128 points), Gilgeous-Alexander is 12th (79) and Schroder is 27th (62). When that trio is on the floor, OKC outscores opponents by 29.6 points per 100 possessions.

OKC's preferred closing group -- the three guards, plus center Steven Adams and power forward Danilo Gallinari -- is the best lineup in the NBA by net rating with a minimum 150 minutes (plus-30.2 per 100 in 159 minutes). And 52.8% of those minutes have come in the fourth quarter.

"They've all coexisted, they've all found a way to make each other better," Donovan said of the three guards. "I felt like it could work, but it wouldn't have worked if those guys didn't have the attitude and mentality they had towards it. Really it was them, the way they handled it."

Against the Nuggets, it was Paul's midrange mastery that took over. He snaked around screens, weaved through traffic, dribbled in, dribbled out and knocked down shots. It has become almost a formula the Thunder abide by: Get through the first three quarters, keep it close, release the point guard. It is set up by Donovan playing different duo combinations throughout the game, setting up the final few minutes with the three guards finishing the game.

If the Warriors had the death lineup, the Thunder have the endgame lineup.

"If you guys had mics on all of us you'd get a chance to see we're all each other's biggest cheerleaders," Paul said. "I've seen teams where guys aren't necessarily rooting for each other. They want you to do bad so they can be in the game. But we're not like that in here and it's refreshing and nice to see."

According to ESPN Stats & Information research, the point guard trio has played 90 minutes together in clutch time, and 157 minutes total; 47.7% of the time in the fourth quarter, 42.1% of the time in the last five minutes and/or overtime, and 24.1% of the time in the clutch. "It's not like I'm trying to hold it to the fourth," Donovan said. "I just don't want it to be at the expense where we're trying to play that way and the other portions of the game we're not as good. There's a balance you have to find."

The Nuggets themselves are no clutch-time slouches, either. They're 23-12 in clutch-time games, the second-most wins in the league behind Oklahoma City. They found their way to the top tier of the West with a ground-and-pound approach, playing close games and winning behind timely stops and execution.

The Thunder wound up outscoring the Nuggets 35-24 in the fourth quarter. Denver's sloppy finish on Friday was uncharacteristic but also possibly evidence of the rhythm the Nuggets are trying to rediscover. The past two months have had games where the first priority was to field a playable rotation and the second was to try to win with whatever was cobbled together. Friday's starting lineup of Jamal Murray, Gary Harris, Will Barton, Paul Millsap and All-Star Nikola Jokic returned in Oklahoma City intact for the first time since Jan. 6 because of injuries to everyone except Jokic.

The Nuggets weathered the storm behind the pendulous brilliance of Jokic, who took on a more vocal leadership role during the past couple of months. In the face of the recent attrition, Denver entered Friday's game still No. 2 in the West. It might look as if moving is a chore and that he's tucking the ball into bed rather than shooting it, but Jokic is a ruthless tactician.

"If you want to sleep on the Nuggets, if you want to sleep on Nikola, keep on sleepin'," Nuggets coach Michael Malone said of his perception at the lack of appreciation for Jokic's season. "We're not concerned about any of that stuff. We know who we have. We have an MVP candidate, we have the best center in the NBA. And we're gonna continue to play through and rely on him to lead this team on and off the court."

Jokic was his typical fantastic self, scoring 11 of Denver's first 13 points and finishing with a game-high 32 points on 12-of-15 shooting. He's averaging 20.8 points, 10.2 rebounds, and 6.9 assists; but since Jan. 7 the production has cranked to 24.3 points, 10.9 rebounds, and 7.8 assists.

"He's not going to bed at night wondering why no one's not talking about him," Malone said. "He doesn't care. He's reading his book on horses, we're winning games and he's happy. If he's happy, I'm happy."

Jokic, and Malone, weren't very happy after Friday's game. OKC carved the typically stout Denver defense, and if this was a preview of a possible postseason matchup, it had to give Malone some pause. Those final five minutes are when the Nuggets often do their best work, and in this case, the Thunder outscored them 18-9 in the last 5:31 of the game. With Schroder battling through a tweaked ankle, the three-guard lineup was deployed a little later than usual but was on the front end of putting the wraps on another win.

The prevailing theme from everyone is unselfishness, but it's also about connectivity. The Thunder have had reps in crunch time, and it's obvious to everyone that Paul is good in close games. He produces winning possessions, consistently locating the best possible shot more often than not. But he doesn't monopolize. On Friday, he had his moments, but he also leaned on Gallinari, he gave the ball to Schroder to let him work a mismatch, he had Gilgeous-Alexander bring it up to initiate the offense. The plan is to let whomever is cooking to serve the meal, and if needed, help clean the table afterward.

"We just want to win," Gilgeous-Alexander said. "And whatever it is in that situation, we're willing to do. We have guys that are unselfish, and that's why it works."

The Houston Rockets have the NBA's attention with their radical small-ball swerve, but the Thunder have been at their gamble since day one. It was borne out of necessity rather than strategy -- like most trendsetting moves -- but they committed to it and have leaned in. It's their not-so-secret weapon and what keeps them as the frisky, dangerous, nobody-wants-to-play-them wild card in the Western Conference playoff bracket.

LOS ANGELES -- The pilot of a helicopter that crashed into a Southern California hillside and killed Kobe Bryant, himself and seven others was reprimanded five years ago for flying without permission into airspace while he had reduced visibility, according to a Federal Aviation Administration enforcement record.

Ara Zobayan was counseled by an FAA investigator after he violated FAA rules by crossing into busy airspace near Los Angeles International Airport on May 11, 2015, according to the record, which was first reported Friday by the Los Angeles Times.

The record doesn't indicate whether Zobayan was carrying any passengers at the time.

Zobayan, 50, died Jan. 26 when his helicopter plunged at high speed into a hillside in Calabasas, northwest of Los Angeles. Zobayan had been trying to climb above a cloud layer when the aircraft banked left and plunged 1,200 feet (366 meters) at high speed. There has been speculation that the pilot became disoriented in the foggy weather. The crash remains under investigation.

The crash also killed Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, and six others. The victims will be honored Monday at a public memorial at Staples Center in Los Angeles.

At the time, Zobayan was chief pilot for the charter service Island Express Helicopters Inc.

He was flying for the same company during the 2015 incident.

According to the FAA report, Zobayan's helicopter was near the Hawthorne, California, airport and heading north when he asked the LAX tower for permission to cross LAX airspace. Zobayan was told that weather conditions didn't meet the minimum for pilots using visual flight rules (VFR) -- that is, flying by sight.

Zobayan was asked whether he could maintain "VFR conditions."

Zobayan replied that he could "maintain special VFR" -- meaning he sought permission to fly by sight in less-than-optimal visibility.

When air traffic control denied the request and told him to stay clear of the area, Zobayan replied that he could "maintain VFR," but during the conversation, the helicopter entered the airspace, according to the record.

Zobayan contacted authorities and his company after the incident and was cooperative. But an FAA investigator faulted him for failing to properly plan and review current weather at LAX, which would have allowed him time to communicate earlier with the tower to receive clearance, according to the record.

The report said Zobayan "admitted his error, took responsibility for his action, and was willing to take any other necessary steps toward compliance.''

"There are no indications that this is a repeated incident and there are no signs that this incident is a trend with Mr. Zobayan," the report said.

Zobayan was counseled "on operating in Class B airspace, special VFR weather minimums, proper planning, reviewing weather, and anticipating required action," the report said. "He was cooperative and receptive to the counseling."

Island Express Helicopters Inc. reported that it conducted additional ground and flight training with Zobayan.

Veteran helicopter pilots were divided over the severity of the FAA violation, the Times reported.

"I don't know a single pilot out there who hasn't violated a rule," Shawn Coyle said. "If that's the only violation he's ever had then I would say he's pretty safe."

But former Island Express pilot Kurt Deetz said entering LAX airspace without approval can be dangerous because of the possible presence of commercial jets. He also questioned Zobayan's communication with air traffic controllers.

"You can't request special VFR and then they deny you and you say, 'Oh wait a minute, actually I'm VFR,'" he told the Times. "That's not how it works. It shows that perhaps his understanding of special VFR as opposed to VFR was cloudy."

LAS VEGAS – Call it a happy homecoming for Sin City native Kyle Busch.

For the second straight night in his hometown, Busch celebrated in victory lane, this time dominating the Strat 200 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway for his seventh win in as many starts in the NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series dating back to 2018.

Friday night’s Truck Series beatdown – the 57th win of Busch’s career in his 151st start – came just 24 hours after a late model score at the three-eighths-mile Bullring short track across the street.

Where Busch said he “had to work” for the late model win, his Truck Series victory was no contest.

The all-time series wins leader led seven times for a race-high 108 of the 134 laps turned, fending off a determined Sheldon Creed during a short battle in the final stage and pulling away down the stretch.

Busch cruised to the checkered flag 5.958 seconds clear of 2016 Truck Series champion Johnny Sauter.

While he may have made it look easy, Busch noted that getting up to speed was his Achilles heel Friday.

“I don’t know why, but we just couldn’t fire off on the restarts,” noted Busch in victory lane. “We just didn’t have any speed on those, but once we got about 10 laps in (to a run), we just started to check out from everybody. This Cessna Tundra was awesome. It had really good long-run speed and the guys did a fantastic job all night. It’s the first win for (Danny) Stockman with KBM, too, so that’s really cool.

“All my guys work their butts off. When we unloaded, we weren’t really all that close, and we worked on it a lot with this new tire and got it a lot better,” Busch added. “I feel like we showed that on the long runs. Overall, it’s pretty cool to come home and have a homecoming win like this in the Truck Series.”

After winning both 30-lap stages to start the night, Busch led off the gun following a lap-78 restart thanks to a huge shove from Creed, who then went to work at trying to unseat Busch from the lead.

For nearly four straight laps, Creed and Busch ran side by side, inches apart as the two side-drafted one another trying to gain any sort of an advantage and trading the lead at the start/finish line each time.

Finally, on the 82nd rotation, Creed got loose off turn four and faded back to sixth while Busch stormed out to a lead it looked like he’d never relinquish again under green-flag conditions.

However, a crash between Busch’s young rookie – Raphael Lessard – and Daytona winner Grant Enfinger with 45 to go set up the final restart of the night and gave Creed one final chance at Busch.

Creed capitalized on it, reclaiming the point on laps 96 and 97, but Busch soared past on the 98th round with an outside sweep to take full command of the race for good.

Busch led the final 37 laps uncontested for his third-straight spring Truck Series win at Las Vegas.

Sauter, Austin Hill, Matt Crafton and Ben Rhodes filled out the top five, with ThorSport Racing claiming three of the first five finishing positions in a strong showing for the Sandusky, Ohio-based organization.

Sixth through 10th were Zane Smith, Todd Gilliland, Tanner Gray, Stewart Friesen and Sheldon Creed.

The NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series season continues March 14 at Atlanta (Ga.) Motor Speedway.

February 22: Peshawar Zalmi vs Quetta Gladiators at National Stadium, Karachi

Our XI: Shane Watson, Tom Banton, Kamran Akmal, Liam Livingstone, Jason Roy, Ahmed Shehzad, Mohammad Nawaz, Fawad Ahmed, Mohammed Hasnain, Wahab Riaz, Hasan Ali

Captain: Shane Watson

Though Watson is closing in on 39 years and has been playing only franchise cricket for close to four years, he will still be the most important wicket for his opponents. He scored two fifties (91* and 71) against this opponent last year. Watson, in fact, has scored 272 runs against Peshawar since 2018 at a strike rate of 154.5 and averaging 54.4.

Vice Captain: Tom Banton

Some might call Banton a hit or miss batsman but his average of almost 35 in T20s doesn't suggest so. He is coming off a pretty good BBL 2019/20. He scored 34 boundaries (18 fours and 16 sixes) in just 7 innings in the tournament. Banton loves pace on the ball and the Quetta bowlers have plenty of that, so Banton as your vice captain might be a good punt.

Hot Picks

Jason Roy

Fresh off a very good series in South Africa, Roy will be eager to get going in the PSL. Though he got a duck in the opening game, he shouldn't be ignored. Roy scored 117 runs at a strike rate of 164.8 in the series against South Africa.

Liam Livingstone

There are few people in world cricket at the moment who can hit the ball as hard as Livingstone. He was the highest run getter for Perth Scorchers in BBL 2019/20 with 425 runs at a SR of 142.61. Livingstone crossed the 50-run mark four times in the tournament and on all those occasions, his strike rate was 146 or more.

Fawad Ahmed

He had a pretty ordinary BBL this season but the fact that that has not affected his T20 numbers tells you how good he is. He has an excellent economy rate of 6.81 in the format. Ahmed's experience from last PSL will surely help him and the team. He picked up 11 wickets at an economy of 6.57 in the last edition of the PSL.

Wahab Riaz

Riaz has developed so many skills and variations over the last few years which have made him a complete bowler and a potent weapon in the format. He picked up 5/8 in his last game before the PSL (Dhaka Platoons vs Rajshahi Royals in BPL 2019/20). Riaz picked up 10 wickets in 7 games in that edition of BPL. He also had the best SR (15.4) among all bowlers who had picked up 10 or more wickets for Dhaka in the season. You cannot afford to leave him out.

Value Picks

Mohammad Nawaz

Nawaz is one of those utility players who can contribute with the bat and ball. He may not win you matches on his own but can surely finish games off with the bat and bowl crucial overs with the ball. He has scored 176 runs and picked up 20 wickets across the last two seasons of the PSL. Nawaz is a valuable pick because he mostly bowls out his 4 overs and bats in the top 6.

Points to note

• These two teams met 4 times in PSL 2018/19 and Quetta won all 4 of those games. So it is a good idea to have more players from that side.

• There are a lot of Zalmi batsmen to choose from so choose wisely. It is a good tactic to have your captain and vice-captain from different teams as both teams are high scoring, successful teams.

Toss Zimbabwe chose to bat v Bangladesh

Zimbabwe opted to bat on the first morning of the one-off Test in Mirpur. With Sean Williams missing this Test to be present for the birth of his first child, stand-in captain Craig Ervine called correctly and gave Zimbabwe's batsmen first use of a track that has an uncharacteristically full covering of grass and could well encourage the seamers with the new ball. They also handed an international debut to medium-pacer Charlton Tshuma on the back of consistent returns in the Logan Cup.

As expected, Bangladesh fielded two seamers in Abu Jayed and Ebadat Hossain alongside two frontline spinners in Nayeem Hasan and Taijul Islam. Bangladesh will also hope to be buoyed by the return of Mushfiqur Rahim to the middle order after he missed the Test in Pakistan due to security reasons.

Bangladesh dropped Mehidy Hasan for the first time in a home Test since he made his debut against England in 2016. Mehidy has been off-colour since taking 15 wickets against West Indies at home in 2018, after which he took six wickets in four Tests last year. He missed the Rawalpindi Test earlier this month due to an injury. Nayeem comes on the back of taking 13 wickets last week in a first-class match, with 8 for 107 and 5 for 101 against North Zone in the Bangladesh Cricket League.

The preference is a significant decision within the senior team where there has been strong hints of change after Bangladesh's sixth successive defeat since last year.

Timycen Maruma slotted into Zimbabwe's middle order in place of the absent Williams, while the visitors opted for a seam-heavy attack; Ainsley Ndlovu is the only specialist spinner in Zimbabwe's XI.

Bangladesh: 1 Tamim Iqbal, 2 Saif Hassan, 3 Najmul Hossain Shanto, 4 Mominul Haque (capt), 5 Mushfiqur Rahim, 6 Mohammad Mithun, 7 Liton Das (wk), 8 Taijul Islam, 9 Abu Jayed, 10 Nayeem Hasan, 11Ebadat Hossain

Zimbabwe: 1 Kevin Kasuza, 2 Prince Masvaure, 3 Craig Ervine (capt), 4 Brendan Taylor, 5 Sikandar Raza, 6 Regis Chakabva (wk), 7 Timycen Maruma, 8 Ainsley Ndlovu, 9 Victor Nyauchi, 10 Donald Tiripano, 11 Charlton Tshuma

Sri Lanka chose to bowl v West Indies

Sri Lanka won the toss and chose to field first at the SSC, expecting a little movement in the air and off the surface early in the day. The track itself appeared a good one-day pitch - suited to batting - and may settle down as the game wears on.

West Indies named a largely predictable XI, asking Sunil Ambris to open alongside Shai Hope after Brandon King's two failures in the practice matches this week. Nicholas Pooran has also sufficiently recovered from the back complaint he had picked up in the first of those games to be available for this match.

Legspinner Hayden Walsh has been preferred to left-arm spinner Fabian Allen. Walsh took 2 for 52 and 1 for 44 in the warm-up matches, which were comparable numbers to what Allen had registered. However, Sri Lanka have generally been less comfortable against wristspin than fingerspin in recent years, which may have influenced this selection.

Sri Lanka, meanwhile, named two wristspinners in Wanindu Hasaranga and Lakshan Sandakan. This means Isuru Udana and Nuwan Pradeep are the only specialist quicks, though they will have support from allrounders Angelo Mathews and Thisara Perera. Thisara claimed a place in the XI ahead of Dasun Shanaka. According to coach Mickey Arthur, this was down to Thisara's superior bowling.

Sri Lanka: 1 Dimuth Karunaratne (capt.), 2 Avishka Fernando, 3 Kusal Perera (wk), 4 Kusal Mendis, 5 Angelo Mathews, 6 Dhananjaya de Silva, 7 Thisara Perera, 8 Wanindu Hasaranga, 9 Isuru Udana, 10 Lakshan Sandakan, 11 Nuwan Pradeep

West Indies: 1 Sunil Ambris, 2 Shai Hope (wk), 3 Darren Bravo, 4 Roston Chase, 5 Nicholas Pooran, 6 Kieron Pollard (capt.), 7 Jason Holder, 8 Hayden Walsh, 9 Keemo Paul, 10 Alzarri Joseph, 11 Sheldon Cottrell