A person familiar with the negotiations says Carlos Correa has agreed to a $200 million, six-year contract that keeps him with the Minnesota Twins after failing to complete deals with the New York Mets and San Francisco Giants. The deal for the All-Star shortstop is subject to a successful physical. Correa agreed Dec. 13 to a $350 million, 13-year contract with the Giants, who called off a news conference a week later over concerns with a right ankle injury. Correa agreed that night to a $315 million, 12-year deal with the Mets, who also had concerns about the ankle. The agreement with the Twins could be worth $270 million over 10 seasons if Correa remains healthy.
NBA
Joel Embiid rocked braids and had 36 points and 11 rebounds, James Harden added a second straight triple-double and the Philadelphia 76ers routed the Detroit Pistons 147-116 on Tuesday night. Harden finished with 16 points, 15 assists and 12 rebounds Embiid returned from a three-game absence with a sore left foot with a new look. But it was the same dominant performance out of last season’s NBA scoring champion. Saddiq Bey, Jaden Ivey and Rodney McGruder each scored 17 points for the Pistons.
Pascal Siakam scored 28 points, Gary Trent Jr. had 24 and the Toronto Raptors beat the Charlotte Hornets 132-120 on Tuesday night. O.G. Anunoby scored eight of his 22 points in the fourth quarter and matched his career high with six 3-pointers as Toronto won its fourth straight home meeting with the Hornets and reached the midway point of the regular season at 18-23. The Raptors made a season-high 20 3-points in 44 attempts. Toronto won consecutive games for the sixth time this season. The Raptors have yet to win three in a row this season. Terry Rozier scored 33 points and LaMelo Ball had 24 points and a season-high 14 assists for Charlotte.
Mikal Bridges had 26 points, nine rebounds and five assists and the undermanned Suns dominated in Stephen Curry’s return from injury as Phoenix beat the Golden State Warriors for a third time this season, 125-113 on Tuesday night to snap a season-worst six-game skid. Former Warriors guard Damion Lee received his championship ring in a pregame ceremony from brother-in-law Curry, then scored 22 points and grabbed seven rebounds against his former team. Duane Washington Jr. scored 21 points, Dario Saric contributed 19 points, nine rebounds and seven assists and Torrey Craig had 12 points and 14 rebounds for Phoenix. Curry came back from an 11-game absence with a partially dislocated left shoulder to score 24 points on 8-for-22 shooting. Klay Thompson had 29 points.
Jimmy Butler’s three-point play with 12.9 seconds left capped an NBA-record performance by the Miami Heat and gave them a 112-111 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder on Tuesday night. Butler’s free throw made the Heat 40 for 40 from the foul line, breaking the 39-for-39 mark by Utah against Portland on Dec. 7, 1982. Butler was 23 for 23 from the line, tying the second-most makes without a miss in NBA history. Butler had 35 points for Miami, which had used only eight players and was down to seven when Dewayne Dedmon was ejected in the second quarter. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 26 points for the Thunder. Josh Giddey had a triple-double — 18 points, 15 rebounds and 10 assists.
Donovan Mitchell had 46 points in his return to Utah, but the Jazz rallied late behind Jordan Clarkson to beat the Cleveland Cavaliers 116-114. Clarkson scored 32 points, including five 3-pointers, and poured in nine straight down the stretch to fuel a decisive 13-0 run. Lauri Markkanen had 25 points and 16 rebounds for the Jazz. Malik Beasley, Mike Conley and Nickeil Alexander-Walker added 13 apiece as Utah won for just the second time in nine games. Mitchell, who spent his first five seasons with Utah, also had six assists, five rebounds and three steals. Darius Garland added 21 points and six assists for Cleveland.
NHL
Artemi Panarin scored the deciding goal in a shootout and the New York Rangers beat the Minnesota Wild 4-3. K’Andre Miller and Adam Fox each had a goal and an assist, and Filip Chytil also scored for New York. Igor Shesterkin finished with 28 saves as the Rangers moved to 4-0-2 in their last six games. Kirill Kaprizov, Mats Zuccarello and Jon Merrill scored and Sam Steel had two assists for Minnesota, which is 9-3-2 in its last 14 games. Marc-Andre Fleury had a season-high 41 saves. Kaapo Kakko scored for the Rangers and Zuccarello for the Wild in the first round of the tiebreaker.
Jason Robertson scored in regulation and picked up the only goal in the shootout to give the Dallas Stars a 2-1 win over the New York Islanders. Robertson wired a wrist shot over the glove of Sorokin in the shootout. Dallas’ Jake Oettinger made 26 saves and stopped Mathew Barzal, Anthony Beauvillier and Brock Nelson in the shootout. Anders Lee scored the lone goal for New York and Ilya Sorokin finished with 23 saves in the first of a five-game Islanders homestand.
Matt Beniers, Justin Schultz and Jordan Eberle each had a goal and an assist for Seattle, which rallied to beat the Buffalo Sabres 4-3 for the Kraken’s sixth consecutive win. Yanni Gourde also scored, Andre Burakovsky had two assists and Philipp Grubauer made 32 saves in the fifth of a seven-game trip. Alex Tuch scored twice for the Sabres, Rasmus Dahlin had a goal and an assist and Jeff Skinner tallied two assists. Sabres goalie Eric Comrie stopped 18 shots in his first start since sustaining a lower-body injury on Nov. 16.
Dawson Mercer scored two goals for the New Jersey Devils in their 5-3 win over the Carolina Hurricanes. Mercer gave the Devils their first lead of the game at 8:53 of the third period on his 10th goal of the season. It’s the first multi-goal game of his 123-game NHL career. Jonas Siegenthaler, Jesper Boqvist and Nico Hischier also scored for New Jersey. Vitek Vanecek made 25 saves for his fourth win in a row. Jesperi Kotkaniemi, Max Pacioretty and Sebastian Aho scored for the Hurricanes. Pyotr Kochetkov made 17 saves. The Devils closed the gap on the first-place Hurricanes in a game that marks the midway point of the season for the top two teams in the Metropolitan Division.
Evgeni Malkin scored twice and added two assists as the Pittsburgh Penguins roared back from an early deficit to blow past the Vancouver Canucks 5-4. Malkin’s 28th career four-point game helped spark the Penguins after Pittsburgh spotted the Canucks a three-goal lead. Jason Zucker, Sidney Crosby and Rickard Rakell also scored for Pittsburgh, which has won two straight following a six-game losing streak. Conor Garland, Brock Boeser, Quinn Hughes and Travis Dermott scored for Vancouver. The Canucks have lost five of six.
NFL
Bills safety Damar Hamlin is described as being in good spirts, while undergoing testing for a second day at a Buffalo hospital to determine what led to him going into cardiac arrest during a game last week. Hamlin posted a note on social media saying he's not quite home yet, a day after being transferred from the University of Cincinnati Medical Center to Buffalo General Medical Center. The tests being conducted on Hamlin also will determine when he can be discharged.
Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin plans to support young people through education and sports with the $8.6 million in GoFundMe donations that unexpectedly poured into his toy drive fundraiser after he suffered a cardiac arrest in the middle of a game last week. The Giving Back Fund is a nonprofit that helps athletes and celebrities manage their charitable giving. They will host the “The Chasing M’s Foundation” Charitable Fund. A GoFundMe spokesperson said they will transfer the donations that have come in since Hamlin’s injury. Hamlin's marketing representative, Jordon Rooney, said he and his family are humbled by the “tremendous support” and will communicate with donors over time.
COLLEGE FOOTBALL
Kirby Smart didn't really want to discuss his Georgia Bulldogs' chances for a three-peat on the morning after they won their second straight College Football Playoff championship game. He couldn't deny that he's already thinking about next season and and Georgia's chance to do something unprecedented. The Bulldogs have more national championships than total losses over the past two seasons, and they're headed into 2023 with the opportunity to be the first team in the AP poll era to win three straight titles
South Carolina quarterback Spencer Rattler is coming back to the Gamecocks next season. The Oklahoma transfer posted on social media that he will return to the team in 2023. Rattler's future had been among the biggest offseason questions for South Carolina, which finished No. 23 in the final AP Top 25. Rattler's NFL stock shot up as he passed for 1,044 yards and 10 touchdowns in the Gamecocks' final three games, including consecutive wins over top-10 opponents Tennessee and Clemson.
The University of Colorado has initiated a pilot program that makes the credit review for transfer students a more seamless process. It may have been the move that ultimately lured Deion Sanders to Boulder. In the new landscape of college football, transfers make all the difference. But because of its stringent admissions rules, Colorado was struggling to adjust to those new realities. The charismatic Sanders is coming to Boulder, but not before this initiative was put in place to assure some of those inequities were fixed. By removing a potential stumbling block, Colorado has a chance to consistently win, just like in the days of Bill McCartney when the Buffaloes captured their only national title.
A day after the college football season ended with a repeat championship for Georgia, the University at Albany announced its longest road trip in program history next year. The Great Danes will play at Hawaii on September 9th, looking for their first win against an FBS program since 2016. Coming off a 3-8 season, UAlbany opens August 26th against Fordham.
U.S. SOCCER
National team defenders DeAndre Yedlin and Walker Zimmerman have praised U.S. coach Gregg Berhalter for bringing the Americans together at the World Cup even as he’s currently under investigation by U.S. Soccer for a 1991 incident during which he kicked his now-wife. The U.S. Soccer Federation said it learned of the allegation against Berhalter on Dec. 11 and hired a law firm to investigate. The federation says Berhalter and his wife Rosalind had “spoken openly” about the matter, and Berhalter admitted kicking her during an argument after a night of drinking in 1991 before they were married.
