NBA
Kawhi Leonard scored 23 points, James Harden added 21 and the Los Angeles Clippers had the largest margin of victory in franchise history, routing the Brooklyn Nets 126-67 on Wednesday night. The Clippers broke the team margin mark of 50 against Oklahoma City on April 10, 2022. It also was the worst loss in Nets’ history, eclipsing a 52-point defeat to Houston on Oct. 18, 1978. LA’s largest lead was 64 points midway through the fourth quarter, despite coach Tyronn Lue emptying his bench late in the third quarter. Leonard logged a season-high 24 minutes as he took part in his fourth game since coming back from a knee injury. Jalen Wilson led the Nets with 16 points.
Jalen Brunson scored 16 of his 38 points in the fourth quarter and overtime, and Josh Hart had the 11th triple-double of his career as the New York Knicks beat the Philadelphia 76ers 125-119. Hart had 10 points, 17 rebounds and 12 assists, Mikal Bridges scored 23 points and OG Anunoby added 17 as the Knicks won a rematch of last year’s first-round playoff series. Tyrese Maxey led the 76ers with 33 points. Paul George had 26, and Kelly Oubre Jr. added 16 points and 10 rebounds.
RJ Barrett had 22 points and 10 rebounds, and the Toronto Raptors snapped a 10-game losing streak against Boston with a 110-97 victory over the Celtics. Jakob Poeltl added 16 points and 11 rebounds as the Raptors won consecutive games for the third time. Scottie Barnes scored 18 points. Toronto, which beat Golden State on Monday, has yet to win three straight this season. Peyton Pritchard scored 20 points, Kristaps Porzingis had 18 and Jayson Tatum added 16 for Boston. The Celtics shot 16 for 46 from 3-point range.
Keaton Wallace had a career-high 27 points and the short-handed Atlanta Hawks beat the Chicago Bulls 110-94 on Wednesday night. Wallace nearly doubled his previous high of 14. He made four 3-pointers and had six assists. Daeqwon Plowden scored 19 points in his NBA debut after being called up from the G League’s College Park Skyhawks. Dyson Daniels scored 18 points, and Onyeka Okongwu added 14 points, 13 rebounds and seven assists to help the Hawks win for the third time in four games even though Trae Young sat out due to a bruised right rib. The three-time All-Star was hurt against Phoenix on Tuesday night when he scored a season-high 43 points in a 122-117 win. Coby White scored 16 points for Chicago.
Ja Morant had 21 points and 12 assists to lead the Memphis Grizzlies to a 129-115 win over the San Antonio Spurs. Desmond Bane scored 21 points, Santi Aldama added 20 and Jaren Jackson Jr. 19 for Memphis, which had lost four of its last six games entering Wednesday. San Antonio rookie Stephon Castle had a season-high 26 points and Victor Wembanyama finished 13 points, 12 rebounds and eight blocks.
Damian Lillard scored 30 points and Giannis Antetokounmpo had 26 points and 11 rebounds as the Milwaukee Bucks capitalized on a fast start for the second straight night and trounced the Orlando Magic 122-93. The Bucks passed Orlando to take over fourth place in the Eastern Conference. Milwaukee led 34-16 at the end of the first quarter. Paolo Banchero scored 22 points for Orlando. Bucks guard Andre Jackson Jr. didn’t play the second half after bruising a hip.
Dejounte Murray scored 30 points, Trey Murphy III had a disputed block of Spencer Dinwiddie’s layup for the lead with 4 seconds left and the New Orleans Pelicans outlasted the injury-depleted Dallas Mavericks 119-116. Murphy had 24 points and 10 rebounds. But video replays made his block look like a goaltend, with the ball grazing the glass just before Murphy touched it. Dallas had no timeouts and couldn't challenge. Javonte Green added 13 points for New Orleans. Daniel Gafford scored a career-high 27 points on 12-of-13 shooting and grabbed 12 rebounds for Dallas. The Mavs played without Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving as well as usual starting center Dereck Lively. The Pelicans played without Zion Williamson.
Jalen Green scored 34 points, Alperen Sengun had 20 points, nine rebounds and eight assists and the Houston Rockets beat the short-handed Denver Nuggets 128-108. Fred VanVleet added 16 points, eight assists and three steals for the Rockets, who beat Denver for the fifth time in six meetings. The Nuggets were without Nikola Jokic (right elbow inflammation) and Aaron Gordon (right calf injury). Jamal Murray and Christian Braun each scored 22 point for Denver, which had 18 turnovers in the loss, including five apiece from its starting backcourt of Murray and Russell Westbrook.
Mark Williams scored a career high 31 points and had 13 rebounds to help the Charlotte Hornets beat the Utah Jazz 117-112 on Wednesday night. LaMelo Ball added 27 points, nine assists and three blocks to help Charlotte snap a seven-game road losing streak. Miles Bridges had 25 points and 10 rebounds, and Brandon Miller finished with 20 points. Keyonte George led Utah with 26 points and six assists. Brice Sensabaugh added 19 points.
Rui Hachimura scored 23 points and Anthony Davis had 22 points and 11 rebounds as the Los Angeles Lakers snapped a three-game skid with a 117-108 victory over the Miami Heat. LeBron James finished with 22 points and nine assists and Austin Reaves added 14 points and 14 rebounds as the Lakers won for the first time since having two games postponed due to the deadly wildfires in Southern California. Tyler Herro shot 7 for 12 from 3-point distance and scored 34 points for the Heat.
Stephen Curry made seven 3-pointers and scored 31 points to help the Golden State Warriors stave off a furious comeback by the Minnesota Timberwolves for a 116-115 victory. Andrew Wiggins added 24 points for a depleted Warriors team seeking a spark on the last stop on a four-game trip after falling below .500 for the first time this season in a loss Monday at Toronto. Anthony Edwards and Donte DiVincenzo each scored 28 points for the Wolves. They trailed by 24 points late in the first quarter and fought back for a 108-all tie with 1:07 left.
NHL
Ryan McLeod scored three goals for his first career hat trick and the Buffalo Sabres beat the Carolina Hurricanes 4-2. Dylan Cozens also scored and Jason Zucker had two assists for the Sabres, who won for the third time in four games. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 35 saves. Jaccob Slavin and Martin Necas scored and Brent Burns had two assists in the Hurricanes’ second straight loss. Dustin Tokarski made 21 saves.
Vasily Podkolzin scored the tiebreaking goal early in the third period, Connor McDavid had two goals and an assist, and the Edmonton Oilers beat the Minnesota Wild 5-3 for their seventh win in eight games. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins had a goal and assist, and Zach Hyman started Edmonton’s comeback from a 2-0 deficit with a goal. Calvin Pickard stopped 31 shots. Matt Boldy, Marco Rossi and Ryan Hartman scored for Minnesota, which has lost three of four as it deals with major injuries. Filip Gustavsson had 31 saves.
A bill to award Congressional Gold Medals to the 1980 “Miracle on Ice” Olympic hockey team has been reintroduced in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate. The ongoing effort that included the bill being first introduced in October needed to be submitted for consideration again in the 119th Congress. Minnesota Congressman Pete Stauber again took the lead with bipartisan support from representatives and senators from Michigan, Massachusetts, North Dakota and New York. February marks the 45th anniversary of the Americans beating the heavily favored Soviet Union on the way to the gold medal on home ice in Lake Placid, New York.
MEN’S COLLEGE BASKETBALL
Curtis Jones scored 25 points in his second start of the season to lead No. 2 Iowa State to a 74-57 win over No. 9 Kansas for the Cyclones' 12th straight victory. The Cyclones came into the game with their highest ranking in program history but without one of their key starters in forward Milan Momcilovic. He's out indefinitely with a left hand injury. Jones looked comfortable starting in Momcilovic’s place. He made his first six shots and finished 5 of 6 on 3-pointers. Zeke Mayo led the Jayhawks with 17 points.
WOMEN’S COLLEGE BASKETBALL
UMass 82 La Salle 66
UConn 71 St. John’s 45
Women’s basketball teams finally will be paid for playing games in the NCAA Tournament each March just like the men have for years under a plan approved Wednesday at the NCAA convention. The vote by NCAA membership was the final step toward a pay structure for women playing in March Madness after the Division I Board of Governors voted unanimously for the proposal in August. Now, so-called performance units that represent revenue will be given to women’s teams playing in the tournament. A team that reaches the Final Four could bring its conference roughly $1.26 million over the next three years. The lack of a performance units program for the women’s tournament has been a point of sharp criticism.
NFL
Texas junior quarterback Quinn Ewers has declared for the NFL draft, ending a Longhorns career in which he led the program to a Big 12 championship and twice to the College Football Playoff but was not always embraced by a fan base eagerly waiting for Arch Manning to take over. Ewers passed for 9,128 yards and 68 touchdowns in a career that few Texas quarterbacks can match. His biggest legacy will be leading the program to the playoff semifinals in consecutive years, but Texas fell short of the championship game both times. Ewers’ departure sets the stage for Manning to take over in 2025. Manning passed for 939 yards and nine touchdowns and ran for four TDs this season but has seen only limited playing time since September.
Urban Meyer will join Nick Saban in the 2025 College Football Hall of Fame class. The National Football Foundation announced Saban’s selection last week and the rest of the 18-player, four-coach class on Wednesday. Michael Vick and Michael Strahan are among the former players who will be inducted. Saban retired last year as the NCAA’s active leader in wins with 292 and seven national championships. Meyer led Florida to national titles in 2006 and 2008 and Ohio State in 2014. The 2025 class will be inducted Dec. 9 during an awards dinner in Las Vegas. The Hall of Fame is in Atlanta.
The road to the NFL’s final four features seven of the eight division winners. Patrick Mahomes and the two-time defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs open the divisional round weekend against C.J. Stroud and the Houston Texans on Saturday afternoon. Rookie sensation Jayden Daniels leads the Washington Commanders against the No. 1 seed Detroit Lions in a prime-time matchup. Daniels helped the Commanders upset the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in a wild-card game. Saquon Barkley and the Philadelphia Eagles host the Los Angeles Rams, who are coming off a short week following a Monday night win, in the early game Sunday. Then it’s Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens against Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills to cap the weekend.
The rapport between Washington Commanders rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels and sixth-year wide receiver Terry McLaurin has blossomed throughout the season. It’s a big reason why they made the playoffs and advanced to the divisional round, where they’ll face NFC-leading Detroit this weekend. On and off the field, their chemistry has been growing since spring workouts, peaking with a touchdown pass at Tampa Bay that delivered the franchise’s first postseason victory in nearly two decades. Daniels and McLaurin are Washington's first QB-receiver duo to make the Pro Bowl since Mark Rypien and Gary Clark in 1991.
Viewer audiences for the first weekend of the NFL playoffs were down 9.3% from last year, a bigger decline than what the league experienced during the regular season. According to the league and Nielsen, the six wild-card round games averaged 28.3 million viewers on television and digital platforms, compared to 31.2 million last year. The two Saturday games held steady while the Sunday and Monday matchups saw declines.
TENNIS
Coco Gauff has stretched her unbeaten start to 2025 to seven matches and 14 sets. The 2023 U.S. Open champion moved into the third round at the Australian Open with a 6-3, 7-5 victory over 173rd-ranked Jodie Burrage of Britain at Rod Laver Arena. Gauff was a semifinalist at Melbourne Park a year ago. Against Burrage, she went through a bit of a rough patch in the second set, struggling with double-faults and dropping four games in a row to go from a break up at 3-1 to a break down at 5-3. But when Burrage served for the second set, Gauff got back in control.
Iga Swiatek rushed through her first set in 26 minutes and completed her 6-0, 6-2 second-round win over Rebecca Sramkova in an hour at the Australian Open. The five-time Grand Slam champion makes a habit of advancing quickly through the early rounds at the majors. She’s won almost 12% of her sets in Grand Slams by 6-0, according to the tournament broadcaster. When No. 49-ranked Sramkova ended a seven-game losing run by holding serve, she raised her arm to acknowledge the applause from the Rod Laver Arena crowd. Second-seeded Swiatek next faces 2021 U.S. Open champion Emma Raducanu, who held off Amanda Anisimova 6-3, 7-5.
The Australian Open is getting in on the newest trend in the sports world by re-creating tennis matches in video-game form. The year’s first Grand Slam tournament runs through Jan. 26 and is streaming real-time animated feeds on its YouTube channel that mimic what’s happening in the three main stadiums. Players are represented by characters that look like something out of a Wii game. They might not exactly be perfect portrayals of Coco Gauff or Novak Djokovic but the graphics do try to show the correct outfit colors or hats and bandanas the athletes are wearing and reflect what is happening in the matches, with about a one-point delay.
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