NFL
Cairo Santos made a 30-yard field goal for Chicago with 10 seconds left for his fourth of the game after a miss on the opening drive, and the Bears had four interceptions of Joshua Dobbs in a defense-dominated 12-10 victory over the Minnesota Vikings. Justin Fields lost two fumbles in the fourth quarter. With excellent protection on third-and-10 near midfield he hit D.J. Moore for 36 yards to put the Bears at the 13 with 55 seconds left. They drained the clock to set up the winning kick and stop a 12-game losing streak against NFC North opponents.
Buffalo Bills pass rusher Shaq Lawson has apologized for shoving a Philadelphia Eagles fan after alleging the person was making threatening remarks about players and their families. Lawson posted his apology on his Instagram account a day after a video showed him and five defensive teammates approach a spectator in the first row behind Buffalo’s bench during a 37-34 overtime loss at Philadelphia. The video showed Bills defensive tackle Jordan Phillips walking up and exchanging words with the unidentified spectator, when Lawson followed and shoved the fan. A spokesman for the Eagles said the matter is being reviewed.
The Carolina Panthers fired coach Frank Reich with the team off to an NFL-worst 1-10 record in his first year in charge. The move came a day after the Panthers lost 17-10 to the Tennessee Titans. Owner David Tepper hired Reich to fix one of the league’s worst offenses over the past few seasons and develop Bryce Young, the No. 1 overall draft pick. Instead, they are assured of a sixth straight losing season since Tepper bought the team in 2018. Special teams coordinator Chris Tabor will take over as interim head coach. Tabor’s first move was to fire quarterbacks coach Josh McCown and running backs coach Duce Staley, according to a person familiar with the situation.
Rome Odunze can see not all is right with the offense for No. 3 Washington. It hasn’t looked quite right since Odunze caught the winning touchdown to beat Oregon back in October. The Ducks are the same team the Huskies will see in Friday’s Pac-12 championship game. There’s no debating that Washington hasn’t carved up defenses with the ease it displayed leading up to the 36-33 win over Oregon on Oct. 14. The Huskies know the offense must get better in short order.
NBA
Joel Embiid had 30 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists to help the Philadelphia 76ers rout LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers 138-94 on Monday night. Embiid notched his sixth career triple-double with 2 minutes left in the third quarter. It was Embiid’s first of the season and his seventh career game with 10-plus assists. LeBron James scored 18 points but nothing he did could make a dent in the 76ers’ lead. The 76ers hit 13 3-pointers in the first half.
Kyle Kuzma had 32 points and 12 rebounds as the Washington Wizards ended a nine-game losing streak with a 126-107 rout of the Detroit Pistons on Monday in a battle of the NBA’s worst teams. Washington won for the first time since Nov. 8. The Pistons have lost 14 straight. Kuzma, playing in his home state, added eight assists while committing two turnovers. Deni Avdija and Danilo Gallinari scored 16 for the Wizards. Cade Cunningham led the Pistons with 26 points and seven assists. Jalen Duren had 12 points and 14 rebounds.
Jerami Grant scored 34 points and Deandre Ayton had 22 points and 13 rebounds to power the Portland Trail Blazers to a 114-110 victory over the Indiana Pacers. Malcolm Brogdon added 24 points for the Trail Blazers, including a game-sealing basket in the closing seconds. Tyrese Haliburton led the Pacers with 33 points. Bruce Brown, Myles Turner and Bennedict Mathurin each had 11, but the Pacers were slowed by 20 turnovers and 8-for-33 shooting from 3-point range. Following a Portland turnover, Brown scored to cut the deficit to 112-110 before Brogdon’s driving 7-footer put the Trail Blazers ahead 114-110 with 6 seconds left.
Rookie Keyonte George scored a season-high 19 points to lead the Utah Jazz to a 114-112 victory over the New Orleans Pelicans on Monday night and a sweep of their two-game series. Jordan Clarkson chipped in 16 points and 10 assists for the Jazz. Walker Kessler added 14 points and eight rebounds off the bench. Simone Fontecchio scored 14 points. Utah beat New Orleans for the fifth straight time and second time in three days after making 17 3-pointers, including six in the fourth quarter. Zion Williamson scored 26 points for New Orleans, which lost despite shooting 50% from the field.
Reggie Jackson scored 35 points, DeAndre Jordan had 21 points and 13 rebounds, and the Denver Nuggets rallied in the fourth quarter to beat the Los Angeles Clippers 113-104 without Nikola Jokic. Former Clippers Jackson and Jordan combined for 20 points in the fourth, when the Nuggets trailed by 11 to start. Jackson started and ended a 22-6 spurt with 3-pointers that put the Nuggets ahead 99-94. In between, he fed Jordan for two vicious dunks. The Clippers were led by Kawhi Leonard with 31 points and Ivica Zubac had 23 points and 14 rebounds.
Say this for the NBA. It will have some drama for the final night of group play in the inaugural In-Season Tournament. There are eight games left and all potentially have implications on who will advance. All teams play four games in the group stage. Fourteen teams are already done and the other 16 teams wrap up their group slates on Tuesday. Every group winner will reach the quarterfinals, and the best second-place team from each conference will earn a wild-card spot. There’s a really good chance that tiebreakers to separate teams will come into play. The first tiebreaker is head-to-head, and the second is point differential.
NHL
Alex Tuch scored twice and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen stopped 25 shots as the Buffalo Sabres beat the first-place New York Rangers 5-1. Casey Mittelstadt had a goal and two assists, J.J. Peterka and Kyle Okposo also scored and Owen Power added two assists as the Sabres bounced back from a 7-2 loss at New Jersey two nights earlier. Mika Zibanejad scored for New York, which was 13-1-1 in its previous 15 games. The Rangers, coming off a 7-4 win against Boston on Saturday, hadn’t lost at home since Oct. 19 against Nashville. Igor Shesterkin finished with 34 saves.
Yegor Chinakhov had a goal and an assist, lifting the Columbus Blue Jackets over Boston 5-2 on Monday night, handing the Bruins to their third straight loss. Dmitri Voronkov, Ivan Provorov, Kirill Marchenko and Justin Danforth also scored, and Boone Jenner added a pair of assists. Spencer Martin stopped 31 shots for Columbus, which has won three of its last four games and beat Boston for the first time in seven games, dating back to Jan. 14, 2020. Matthew Poitras scored and Jeremy Swayman stopped 17 shots for Boston before being replaced by Linus Ullmark in the second period, who stopped 19 shots.
Sam Reinhart scored two goals and Sergei Bobrovsky made 20 saves, helping the Florida Panthers beat the Ottawa Senators 5-0. Sam Bennett had a goal and an assist for Florida, which had dropped two in a row. Carter Verhaeghe and Eetu Luostarinen also scored, and Aleksander Barkov had three assists. Bobrovsky’s second shutout of the season and No. 40 for his career helped Matthew Tkachuk get the better of his brother, Ottawa forward Brady Tkachuk. Ottawa struggled early and never managed to get on equal footing with the Panthers. Joonas Korpisalo stopped 33 shots after missing the last two games with a minor injury.
Ryan Johansen scored twice, Alexandar Georgiev made 37 saves and the Colorado Avalanche beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 4-1 for their fourth straight win. Cale Makar added a goal and an assist, while Valeri Nichushkin sealed the win with an empty-net goal. Makar now has 20 assists in November, moving the Avalanche defenseman one away from matching the most in a month in franchise history. Anthony Cirelli scored for the Lightning. They had a goal from Michael Eyssimont negated in the second period when the Avalanche challenged the play for offside.
MacKenzie Weegar scored with 5 seconds left on the clock in overtime, lifting the Calgary Flames to a 2-1 victory over the Vegas Golden Knights. A.J. Greer also scored for the Flames, and Dan Vladar stopped 27 shots. Calgary won for the second time in three games and is 5-2-1 in its last eight games overall and 3-0-1 in the last four at home. William Karlsson scored a power-play goal in the first period for Vegas, and Adin Hill finished with 32 saves. The Golden Knights have lost seven of 10 (3-5-2) since starting the season 11-0-1.
Luke Kunin scored a go-ahead power-play goal in the third period, Mackenzie Blackwood stopped 33 shots, and the San Jose Sharks beat the Washington Capitals 2-1. Kunin’s goal, his fifth of the season, came at 12:48 of the third period off a pass by Justin Bailey, who worked the puck off the boards and found an open Kunin to fire it past Capitals goalie Darcy Kuemper. Bailey was playing his first game with the Sharks after being signed earlier in the day. The Sharks won back-to-back games for just the second time all season and have earned points in three consecutive games for the first time. They were without their points leader in Tomás Hertl, who missed the game with a mid-body injury.
The Minnesota Wild have fired coach Dean Evason and assistant Bob Woods. General manager Bill Guerin announced John Hynes will be the next coach. The Wild have lost 14 of their first 19 games. Evason had the job for nearly five years. He started as a midseason replacement for Bruce Boudreau on Feb. 14, 2020. Evason went 147-77-27 in 251 regular season games and 8-15 in the postseason without winning any series. Hynes is 284-255-63 in eight NHL seasons. The Predators fired him on May 30, six weeks after missing the playoffs.
MLB
The St. Louis Cardinals agreed with AL Cy Young runner-up Sonny Gray on a $75 million, three-year contract to anchor their staff heading into next season. Gray’s deal includes a $30 million team option for 2027 with a $5 million buyout, which could make the agreement worth $100 million over four seasons. The 34-year-old Gray went 8-8 with a 2.79 ERA for Minnesota last season. He turned down a qualifying offer from the Twins, and St. Louis will lose its second-highest draft pick next year for signing him. The Cardinals went 71-91 last season.
COLLEGE BASKETBALL
Donovan Clingan scored a career-high 29 points and No. 4 UConn beat New Hampshire 84-64 on Monday night to set a record with its 24th consecutive victory over a nonconference opponent by double digits. The 7-foot-2 sophomore hit 12 of his 13 shots from the floor for the Huskies (7-0), who broke a record held by North Carolina, which had 23 consecutive double-digit wins over nonconference opponents in 2008 and 2009. The Huskies will take their streak into Lawrence, Kansas on Friday to face the fifth-ranked Jayhawks. Cam Spencer and Tristen Newton each scored 17 points and Newtown also pulled down 10 rebounds for Connecticut.
On the women’s side:
Iona 67 Wagner 55
COLLEGE FOOTBALL
Florida coach Billy Napier began a much-needed defensive makeover by firing two assistants. A person familiar with the decision tells the AP on condition of anonymity that Napier parted with cornerbacks coach Corey Raymond and defensive line coach Sean Spencer, two days after a season-ending loss to rival and then-No. 5 Florida State. The Gators (5-7) lost five consecutive games to end the season and missed a bowl for just the third time since 1990. Defense was the biggest issue down the stretch, with Florida allowing 41.75 points a game in the first four of those losses.
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