Tyrese Maxey and Joel Embiid combined for 68 points and 20 assists, leading the Philadelphia 76ers to a 128-122 win at home over the Houston Rockets in overtime.
The Sixers went into halftime with a 68-61 lead after Maxey threw down a dunk with 2.1 seconds remaining in the second quarter. Yet the Rockets rallied to tie the score at 88 on a Dorian Finney-Smith 3-pointer with 21 seconds left in the third. Kevin Durant also hit three 3s to boost the Houston comeback.
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Two missed calls by the officials resulted in the game going to overtime.
At the end of regulation, Durant appeared to commit goaltending on blocking Maxey’s layup attempt with three seconds remaining. He blocked the shot after it hit the glass. But the play could not be reviewed because goaltending was not originally called by the officials.
On the rebound after Durant’s block, the Rockets were awarded a timeout even though they didn’t have clear possession of the ball. Had Houston not been allowed to call timeout, Sixers rookie VJ Edgecombe had an open 3-pointer that could have won the game.
Instead, the officials reviewed the play and said an inadvertent whistle had been blown. That resulted in a jump ball at mid-court with 1.3 seconds left. Kelly Oubre Jr. got the ball, but Philadelphia could not get a shot off before time expired in regulation.
“Look, they are supposed to call those,” 76ers coach Nick Nurse said afterwards, via The Athletic. “If it is even close, they are supposed to call those and then go and review and get the play right. They should have called it in order to get the play right.”
In overtime, the Sixers quickly took a 5-point lead on a 3 from Paul George and layup by Edgecombe. Houston quickly tied the score at 120-120 on a Durant 3 and Amen Thompson layup. Philadelphia then outscored the Rockets 6-2 during the final two minutes to take a four-point lead. A Maxey dunk with 6.4 seconds remaining clinched the game for the 76ers.
Maxey scored six points in overtime to finish with 36, 10 assists and 4 steals. Embiid tallied a triple-double with 32 points, 15 rebounds and 10 assists. Oubre, who was moved into the starting lineup, added 26 points (hitting 4-of-5 3-pointers) with 4 assists and 3 boards. And George finished with 10 points, 7 rebounds and 4 assists.
With the win, Philadelphia improved 24-19 to move ahed of the Cleveland Cavaliers for the No. 5 seed in the Eastern Conference. The Cavs host the Sacramento Kings on Friday. The 76ers host the New York Knicks on Saturday with a chance to pull the Knicks, who have lost nine of their past 12 games, further down the standings.
Durant led the Rockets with 36 points (making 5-of-8 3s) and 7 rebounds. Thompson added 17 points, 6 boards and 9 assists, while Reed Sheppard scored 14 (with 4-of-7 3-pointers) off the bench. Alperen Şengün, Jabari Smith Jr. and Tari Eason each finished with 13 points.
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Houston dropped to 26-16 with the defeat and could fall behind the Los Angeles Lakers to the No. 5 spot in the West, pending the Lakers’ matchup on Thursday with the Los Angeles Clippers.
Kawhi Leonard returned to the Los Angeles Clippers’ lineup after missing the past three games with a left knee contusion. He made a significant impact, scoring 24 points in a 112-104 win over the Los Angeles Lakers at the Intuit Center on Thursday night.
Leonard came into Thursday’s game averaging a career-high 28.9 points while playing in 30 of the Clippers’ 43 games. He had scored a combined 68 points versus the Washington Wizards and Charlotte Hornets in the two games he played before sitting out with his injury. Leonard played 25 minutes, shooting 9 for 19 (and 3 of 7 on 3-pointers) from the floor.
The Clippers held a 79-53 lead midway through the third quarter after an Ivica Zubac dunk. From there, however, the Lakers chipped away at that 26-point margin with a 19-7 run to end the frame. That became a 34-14 run that trimmed the Clippers’ lead to 93-85 by the 7:40 mark of the fourth quarter.
A Luka Dončić fadeaway 3-pointer with Kris Dunn guarding him moved the Lakers to within 93-91 with 5:56 remaining. But James Harden countered with a 3 of his own to finally stop the Lakers’ momentum and steady the Clippers. John Collins followed with a layup and Zubac hit two free throws to restore the Clippers’ lead back to 100-91 with under four minutes to play.
Clippers coach Ty Lue then won a big replay challenge, arguing that a foul on Jordan Miller should instead be ruled a loose ball foul on the Lakers’ Marcus Smart. Lue won the challenge, which took two free throws away from Smart and awarded them to Miller because the Lakers were in the penalty. Miller made one of the two free throws, and that gave the Clippers a 10-point lead.
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Yet the Lakers fought back again with LeBron James getting a fast-break dunk and Smart turning a Miller turnover into a jumper. Leonard committed another turnover, losing the ball out of bounds, and that led to a Jarred Vanderbilt dunk to cut the Clippers’ lead to 103-99.
Following two free throws by Zubac, James was fouled on a layup and made the subsequent free throw for a 3-point play to pull the Lakers to within 105-102. But Zubac followed with a reverse dunk and Collins hit a 3-pointer after Rui Hachimura missed a long-range shot of his own. That was the dagger, giving the Clippers a 110-102 lead with 43 seconds remaining.
Doncic finished with a game-high 32 points, but shot 11 of 27 from the floor (including 3 of 13 on 3s). He added 11 rebounds and 8 assists. James scored 23 points after tallying only nine at halftime. But he also shot 9 of 19 while grabbing 5 rebounds and dishing out 6 assists.
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The Lakers’ loss dropped them to 26-17 and the No. 6 spot in the Western Conference, behind the Houston Rockets and Phoenix Suns. Up next, they visit the Dallas Mavericks (19-26) for a nationally televised prime-time matchup Saturday on ABC. The Mavs have won four in a row and five of their past six games.
For the Clippers, Zubac scored 18 points with 19 rebounds while Harden also scored 18 and notched 10 assists. Altogether, seven Clippers reached double figures in scoring. The win was the Clippers’ 14th in their past 17 games and improved their record to 20-24, good for 10th place in the West. They’re off until Sunday, when they host the Brooklyn Nets (12-30).
The hard left turn from the John Harbaugh era has turned out to be more of a merge lane for the Baltimore Ravens.
For eight years of his coaching career, Jesse Minter either coached on John Harbaugh’s staff as a positional assistant or anchored himself as a defensive coordinator for Harbaugh’s brother Jim. Now he becomes the chosen change agent to replace John. Now he returns to work with Eric DeCosta, who made his transition from assistant general manager to the full GM title during Minter’s first four years as a Ravens assistant. Now he’ll guide Lamar Jackson, whose first three years as an NFL player overlapped with Minter’s time on Baltimore’s staff.
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This is what a known commodity looks like. From DeCosta and Jackson to team owner Steve Bisciotti. It’s also what a Harbaugh product looks like, which, lends some lingering curiosities to what looks like a hand-in-glove fit.
Those curiosities orbit Jackson and what this hire means for the future of the Ravens and a franchise quarterback who currently has two years left on his contract and 20 questions about how this is all going to culminate in the Super Bowl breakthrough that Baltimore is reaching for.
From a baseline football standpoint, there’s little question that Minter comes in looking like a very good hire. Not only does he present as a young 42-year-old with potentially decades of NFL coaching ahead of him, but his coaching creativity and intuitive ability to bond with his players has some echoes of former Ravens assistant Mike Macdonald. The same Macdonald who departed the John Harbaugh tree to become a head coaching revelation with the Seattle Seahawks the last two seasons, culminating with (thus far) an NFC title game appearance Sunday. Like Macdonald before him, Minter seemed destined to get a head coaching shot, and this cycle did not disappoint. He was a finalist for the Atlanta Falcons job before it went to Kevin Stefanski, and he was slated to have second interviews with the Las Vegas Raiders and Cleveland Browns before the Ravens hired him.
Inglewood, CA, Monday, December 8, 2025 – Los Angeles Chargers cornerback Donte Jackson (26) celebrates with coach Jesse Minter after an interception against the Philadelphia Eagles at SoFi Stadium. (Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
(Robert Gauthier via Getty Images)
All of which gives you different vantages on Minter’s hire. He was a high producing defensive coordinator with the Chargers who parlayed it into being an in-demand head coaching candidate. And the hope, clearly, is that he can instantly spin the kind of gold with the Ravens that Macdonald has with the Seahawks. If that comes to fruition — and Minter carves out the kind of head coaching career that either of the Harbaughs have achieved — it means he is as much the future of the Ravens as Jackson. If not more.
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And that’s where this gets interesting because we are still waiting to see how the coming moves ultimately impact Jackson. Already, the notion that Baltimore would pair its quarterback with an offensive-minded head coach has been flattened. Harbaugh was not that. And now Minter is not that. It’s a reality that makes the Ravens’ offensive coordinator hire — and Jackson’s input into that hire — a paramount decision. As it stood, Bisciotti publicly opened the door to Jackson weighing in on the head coaching hire. To date, we don’t know if Jackson took that opportunity.
Now the question arises as to his involvement in filling the next offensive coordinator. Not to mention what Jackson thinks of Minter and the new-but-familiar direction of the franchise. Certainly, Minter will be asked plenty of questions about Jackson at his introductory news conference. What kind of communication did the two have in the process? Is there a preexisting relationship from when Minter was a defensive assistant for the Ravens? And how will this factor into the contract extension that Baltimore wants to work out with Jackson by the start of free agency?
If that sounds like the Minter hire created more questions about Jackson’s future than it answered, that’s because it likely did. And the answers are going to have to come from the head coach and quarterback, whose relationship will be the defining element answering whether Minter’s first two years as Ravens head coach end up being Jackson’s last two years as the team’s franchise quarterback.
Minter could represent the best case in Baltimore, which would be to inject some new energy into the building and Jackson, then ride that to the Super Bowl that has eluded the Ravens star. But Minter could also be here to transition to life after Jackson, if for some reason there is no extension in the cards and the Ravens have to make a radical change. While it’s certainly nothing close to an apples-to-apples talent or performance comparison, it’s worth noting that part of Macdonald’s success in Seattle has been tied to transitioning from Geno Smith to Sam Darnold.
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That’s nothing close to what it would feel like to eventually move away from Jackson, which would be a seismic event in the franchise and city. It’s hard to even fathom at this point, with Minter’s hire clearly meant to inspire some kind of repairing of the Jackson situation. But even the levels of necessary repair continue to be nebulous at this point, because neither Jackson or the Ravens have publicly aired whatever rift — or stall — made it necessary to move on from John Harbaugh.
Perhaps the closest we’ve gotten was in Bisciotti’s statement about the hire Thursday, when he called Minter “[A] leader who will authentically connect with our players and inspire them to championship levels.” The “authentic connection” feels like it’s some Jackson subtext, appearing to make the bond between coach and quarterback one of the highest priorities.
For his part, Jackson hasn’t said anything yet. Regardless of his words, his willingness to work a contract extension in the next two months will speak volumes. With a gargantuan salary cap number of $74.5 million each of the next two seasons, it’s imperative for the Ravens to get an extension done prior to free agency to provide operational cap space and free-agency flexibility. If Jackson won’t do that extension, it will likely force Baltimore to restructure his deal and push money into future years — which is taking a problem and pushing it out. That’s messy and it would reflect on the relationship between Jackson and ownership in a telling way.
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For now, we’ll wait to hear what Minter has to say about Jackson and vice versa. There’s reason to believe it will be a good partnership. But questions remain, and they begin when Minter steps to the podium as the Ravens’ first answer to making the most out of the next phase of Jackson’s career.
So you can imagine what set of questions James faced from reporters after Thursday’s 112-104 defeat at the Clippers.
When asked what he thought about his partnership with Buss, James said, “I thought it was good. But, you know, somebody could see it another way. There’s always two sides to a coin.”
Before that, James told the group of reporters in the locker room that the story didn’t impact him.
“Quite frankly I don’t really care about articles. I really don’t,” James said. “I don’t care about stories, I don’t care about podcasts and all that type of s***. That don’t bother me. … I don’t care how somebody feels about me. If you know me personally, then you know what I’m about.”
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James has a no-trade clause in his contract and has approval rights over any deal the Lakers could seek for him ahead of the Feb. 5 trade deadline. Asked if he hoped to stay with the Lakers for the remainder of the season, James said: “I’m good. I’m good. … I’m good.”
As for his relationship with Buss, James gave a quizzical look when he was asked if the two had cleared the air after ESPN’s report.
“We never talk. I don’t understand,” James said. “It’s not like me and Jeanie been on the phone talking. You guys ain’t never heard a report about that. Don’t make something out of it that’s not. It’s always been mutual, it’s always been respect, it’s always been a great partnership.”
What should have been a fantastic matchup between two 14-3 teams from the regular season took an unexpected twist.
Late in the Denver Broncos’ overtime win over the Buffalo Bills in the divisional round, quarterback Bo Nix broke a bone in his ankle. He’s done for the rest of the season, and will be replaced by Jarrett Stidham for the AFC championship game against the New England Patriots. Stidham will be the first quarterback since Joe Webb for the 2012 Minnesota Vikings to make his first start in the playoffs without throwing a pass during the regular season. He’ll be just the second quarterback to make his first start of the season in a conference championship game, joining Roger Staubach who did it with the 1972 Dallas Cowboys. Stidham will be the first to make his first start of the season in a conference championship game without attempting a pass in the regular season.
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It’s an unprecedented situation. And it has changed the scope of a strong matchup, also overshadowing a New England team that has had a remarkable turnaround after going 4-13 in each of the past two seasons. The matchup suddenly became Drake Maye, who will finish first or second in the NFL MVP voting this season, against Stidham, whose last pass came at the end of the 2023 regular season. One way or another, it will be a memorable AFC championship game.
Previous meeting this season
The Broncos and Patriots haven’t met since 2023. The teams do have some AFC championship game history. The Broncos, with Peyton Manning, hosted Tom Brady and the Patriots in AFC title games at the end of the 2013 and 2015 seasons. The Broncos won both, winning 26-16 the first time and 20-18 in the second meeting.
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Health update
Everyone knows by now that the Broncos will be without quarterback Bo Nix. There was some other hope that they would get running back J.K. Dobbins back from a foot injury as they opened the practice window for him this week, but he was ruled out for Sunday. On the positive side for Denver, wide receiver Pat Bryant appears in line to play after entering the concussion protocol this week. The Patriots’ injury report is fairly clean, as cornerback Carlton Davis III has also cleared concussion protocol.
The head coaches
The NFL’s final four has four elite coaches. Mike Vrabel could win NFL Coach of the Year for turning around the Patriots this season. Sean Payton would be a fine pick too, after leading the Broncos to the No. 1 seed. The Broncos traded for Payton before the 2023 season and he has gone from eight to 10 to 14 wins in his three seasons in Denver. Vrabel’s expertise is defense while Payton is an offensive guru, which adds to a fantastic coaching matchup.
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Key player for the Patriots
Marcus Jones has the ability to turn a game by making a play in many ways. This season he has emerged as a very good slot cornerback, and might need to play an even bigger role on defense if Carlton Davis III is out (concussion). His pick 6 last weekend against the Texans helped the Patriots take control of that game. Jones is also a phenomenal punt returner; his 14.3-yard average is best in NFL history. Jones hasn’t taken any snaps on offense this season but has in the past, and had a 48-yard receiving touchdown as a rookie in 2022. On this big stage, the Patriots might have a trick play ready for Jones, who has unquestionable game-breaking ability.
This section could be the entire Broncos defense. There’s little mystery here: A team that will be playing with a rusty backup quarterback not only needs to play well on defense, it needs to make a big play or two. We’ll single out cornerback Pat Surtain II, who is the reigning NFL Defensive Player of the Year. He doesn’t get a lot of passes thrown his way as a shutdown corner, but the Patriots also don’t have one alpha receiver he’ll need to shadow. Whether it’s Surtain, Riley Moss, Alex Singleton or one of the Broncos’ defensive linemen, someone is going to have to make a key play or two to overcome the loss of Bo Nix.
Most sportsbooks had Denver as a short favorite on the lookahead lines for the AFC championship game and reopened with the Patriots as a 4.5-point favorite after news that Bo Nix was lost for the season. That line got bet up to -5.5 at some books. Is the dropoff to backup Denver QB Jarrett Stidham really worth 6 or 7 points? “I personally don’t think it should be this much,” one oddsmaker told Yahoo Sports. “I wouldn’t be surprised if this line closes around New England -3.” Not surprisingly, the public is all over the Patriots, but watch out for the total, which has seen sharp action push it from 40.5 up to 42.5. — Ben Fawkes
Sean Payton didn’t seem distraught as he announced Bo Nix’s injury. He simply said the Broncos will rise to the challenge, and that Jarrett Stidham is ready. “Watch out,” Payton said. “Just watch.” Part of that has to be projecting confidence so the team can follow his example because the Broncos have no choice but to stay optimistic. But Payton seems to believe in Stidham, who was a priority free agent for the Broncos in 2023 (Payton’s first offseason in Denver) and was re-signed when he was free again this past offseason. The Patriots are a very good team. Drake Maye will be one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL for years to come. They’re favored in this game for a reason. But don’t underestimate Payton’s ability to get his entire team ready, Stidham included, when everyone is counting them out. Denver still has a top-end defense and a legitimate home-field advantage. The Broncos will rally around Stidham, and they will play good football.
The first time the Los Angeles Rams and Seattle Seahawks met in the regular season, Seattle had a 61-yard field-goal attempt for the win on the final play. The kick went wide right, and the Rams held on for the win.
The second meeting might have been the NFL’s game of the season. The Seahawks had a historic comeback in the fourth quarter and beat the Rams in overtime on a 2-point conversion.
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If the third meeting is anywhere near as dramatic as the first two, we’re in for a great NFC championship game.
The Rams have already had two thrilling playoff wins. They won a wild-card game against the Panthers on a touchdown in the final minute, then beat the Bears last week in overtime. The Seahawks didn’t have that much excitement, as they blew out the 49ers 41-6 in the divisional round.
The Seahawks and Rams looked like the two best teams in the NFL for much of the season. The winner of the rubber match this season will go to Super Bowl LX.
Previous meetings this season
The first meeting, a 21-19 win by the Rams, featured four interceptions by Sam Darnold. Seattle still almost won that game. The Rams outplayed the Seahawks for most of the rematch, but a Rashid Shaheed punt return in the fourth quarter started a comeback. Seattle went from trailing 30-14 with a little more than eight minutes remaining to sending the game to overtime, then winning it on a touchdown and 2-point conversion after the Rams scored first in the extra period. They were fittingly close games between two fantastic teams.
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Health update
The Seahawks suffered a big injury in the divisional round when running back Zach Charbonnet tore his ACL. He and Kenneth Walker III split carries almost evenly in the regular season, and Charbonnet led the Seahawks with 12 rushing touchdowns. Also, quarterback Sam Darnold is still playing through an oblique injury that was a big story last week. The Rams have had two high-stress games to start the playoffs, but their injury report is relatively clean going into the NFC championship game.
The head coaches
Sean McVay is the more proven commodity in the NFC championship game, but Mike Macdonald showed in his second season as a head coach that he’s a rising star too. McVay, who turns 40 years old Saturday, has already put together the type of résumé that most coaches dream of. He has won 61.7% of his games in the regular season and has 10 playoff wins, including a Super Bowl win and another NFC championship. Macdonald, who is a year younger than McVay, is considered a defensive genius and that shined through this season as Seattle had the No. 1 defense in the NFL via DVOA. It looks like we’re in for a long rivalry between these two coaching stars.
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Key player for the Rams
The Seahawks gave up more than 265 passing yards twice in a game this season. One was against the Rams, when Matthew Stafford had 457 yards in Week 16. That was an outlier performance by Seattle’s defense but not for Stafford, who is likely to win NFL MVP in a couple weeks. In the first meeting, however, Stafford struggled with just 130 yards, which was 51 fewer yards than his second-lowest output of the season. Stafford is the key player in every game for the Rams, but given how well Seattle’s defense is playing, whether he is closer to throwing for 130 yards or 457 yards in this third meeting will probably determine whether the Rams move on to Super Bowl LX.
Kenneth Walker III is coming off a huge divisional round performance, and he’ll need to be the workhorse this weekend with Zach Charbonnet done for the season. No Seahawks running back other than Walker and Charbonnet had more than 22 carries all season. George Holani could return from a hamstring injury to back up Walker, but he hasn’t played since Nov. 23. The Seahawks are thin behind Walker, who carved up the 49ers last weekend with 116 yards and three touchdowns on 19 carries. He will likely get more than 20 carries vs. the Rams, something that has not happened yet this season.
After a dominating performance against the 49ers, the Seahawks opened as 2.5-point home favorites against the Rams and that’s pretty much where the line has stayed. Any Rams +3s have been quickly bet early in the week, but the public is on the Seahawks. The Rams have been oddsmakers’ top power-rated team the second half of the season, but have escaped with two wins (and non-covers) in the postseason. Will Sam Darnold do enough to get Seattle to (gulp) a Super Bowl? He may not need to do much with how well the Seahawks’ defense is playing. — Ben Fawkes
This game could turn on how Sam Darnold plays. Dating back to last season’s wild-card game against the Rams, when Darnold was starting for the Vikings, he had struggled badly against Rams defensive coordinator Chris Shula. In 11.5 quarters from that game through the midpoint of the fourth quarter of Week 16, Darnold had thrown one touchdown with seven interceptions and was sacked 11 times against the Rams. Darnold was on his way to a third straight loss against the Rams before coming alive in Seattle’s epic comeback win. The Seahawks are more than Darnold, but they also need Darnold to play like he did late in that game, not like he did for the nearly three full games against Shula’s defense before that.
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Seattle has been a fantastic team all season, going 15-3 including the playoffs with their three losses by a combined nine points. The Seahawks will make adjustments on defense to make sure Matthew Stafford doesn’t go off again. We’ve seen these teams play two incredibly close games, and this one seems like a 50-50 proposition too. Seattle has had extra rest lately and a great home-field advantage, and that gives the Seahawks a very slight edge in what should be a great third meeting.
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🚨 Headlines
📺 Huge ratings for CFP finale: Indiana’s win over Miami in the national title game averaged 30.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched non-NFL sports telecast since Game 7 of the 2016 World Series.
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🏈 Minter is coming (to Baltimore): The Ravens are hiring Chargers DC Jesse Minter as their new head coach. After spending the last four years under Jim Harbaugh in Los Angeles and at Michigan, he’ll now succeed Jim’s brother, John, in Charm City.
⚽️ Rodman inks historic deal: Trinity Rodman has signed a three-year contract with the Washington Spirit reportedly worth over $2 million annually, including bonuses, making her the highest-paid women’s soccer player in the world.
🏆 NFL awards: MVP finalists Matthew Stafford, Drake Maye, Josh Allen, Christian McCaffrey and Trevor Lawrence headline the list of finalists for the NFL’s end-of-season awards, which will be announced during the “NFL Honors” show on Feb. 5, three days before the Super Bowl.
⚾️ Nats trade All-Star: In their first big move under new leadership, the Nationals traded All-Star lefty MacKenzie Gore to the Rangers for five prospects, including the No. 12 pick in last year’s draft, Gavin Fien.
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🍿 Sports make Oscars splash
Timothée Chalamet on the set of “Marty Supreme.” (James Devaney/GC Images)
“Marty Supreme” and “F1” both received Oscar nominations for Best Picture on Thursday, becoming the 18th and 19th sports movies* to be up for the top honor at the Academy Awards.
Historic duo: This marks the first time that two sports movies received Best Picture nominations in the same year.
The full list (winners in bold):
The Pride of the Yankees (1942)
Million Dollar Baby (2004)
*Editor’s note: This list is according to Variety. There may be other Best Picture nominees that could be considered sports-themed (this list on IMDB includes “Gladiator,” for example). It ultimately comes down to your own definition of what is and isn’t a “sports movie.”
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📺 Weekend Watchlist
(Yahoo Sports)
🏈 Conference Championships
The Final Four teams take the field on Sunday with a chance to earn their place in Super Bowl LX. Who ya got?
While the Patriots are starting MVP finalist Drake Maye, the Broncos are starting backup Jarrett Stidham, who hasn’t thrown a pass in over two years. He’s just the second QB in NFL history to make his first start of the season in a Conference Championship, joining Roger Staubach (1972 Cowboys).
This is the ninth time since the 1970 merger that the No. 1 scoring offense (Rams) has faced the No. 1 scoring defense (Seahawks) in the Conference Championship or later. Good news for Seattle: the top defense went 7-1 in the first eight meetings.
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🎾 Australian Open
The year’s first Grand Slam reaches its halfway point this weekend (Fri-Sun, ESPN+/ESPN2), with all quarterfinalists set to be determined by Monday.
Stan the Man: 40-year-old Stan Wawrinka, who plans to retire at season’s end, won a marathon five-setter on Thursday to become the oldest man in 48 years to reach the third round of a major. Next up is a date with No. 9 Taylor Fritz.
🧗 “Skyscraper”
Netflix’s latest foray into live sports arrives tonight (8pm) in the form of Alex Honnold’s death-defying, untethered climb up Taipei 101, the 1,667-foot skyscraper in Taiwan’s capital city. Honnold is best known for his untethered ascent up Yosemite’s El Capitan, as documented in the Oscar-winning film, “Free Solo.”
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What he’s saying: “One of the big differences between climbing a building and rock climbing is that there really isn’t a hardest single move,” says Honnold. “The challenge comes from the overall physicality of it. The fatigue that [sets in] over the course of the building is slightly harder to anticipate. I don’t know how it’s gonna feel.”
🏀 No. 5 Vanderbilt at No. 2 South Carolina
The undefeated Commodores will try to keep their perfect season alive in Sunday’s blockbuster women’s hoops matchup between SEC foes (3pm, ESPN).
Best of the rest: No. 1 UConn, the nation’s only other undefeated team, visits Seton Hall (Sat. 12pm, Peacock), and No. 10 Iowa hosts No. 12 Ohio State (Sun. 2pm, Peacock).
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👊 UFC 324
Paddy Pimblett and Justin Gaethje’s lightweight title bout on Saturday night in Las Vegas (9pm, Paramount+) headlines the first UFC event of the year, and the first of the Paramount+ era.
No more PPV: This is the first event under the UFC’s new broadcast deal with Paramount+, which will allow viewers to watch every fight with a basic subscription to the streaming service ($8.99/month). That’s a substantial change after years at ESPN+, where every numbered event cost $79.99, on top of the monthly subscription.
❄️ Winter X Games
This weekend’s event at Buttermilk Mountain (Fri-Sun, ESPN/ABC) marks the 25th annual Winter X Games in Aspen, Colorado.
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Athletes to watch: Americans Alex Hall and Nick Goepper (slopestyle), Austria’s Anna Gasser (big air) and Australia’s Scotty James (halfpipe) are among the Olympic medalists who will be using this weekend as a warm-up for next month’s Winter Games.
More to watch:
🏀 NBA: Rockets at Pistons (Fri. 7pm, Prime); Knicks at 76ers (Sat. 3pm, ABC); Warriors at Timberwolves (Sat. 5:30pm, ABC); Lakers at Mavericks (Sat. 8:30pm, ABC) … Detroit (32-10) leads the East by a season-high 5.5 games.
🏒 NHL: Lightning at Blackhawks (Fri. 7pm, ESPN); Canadiens at Bruins (Sat. 7pm, NHL); Avalanche at Maple Leafs (Sun. 1:30pm, NHL) … Colorado (34-5-9) has more regulation losses in their last eight games (3) than they did in their first 40 games (2).
🏀 NCAAM: No. 22 UNC at No. 14 Virginia (Sat. 2pm, ESPN); No. 11 Illinois at No. 4 Purdue (Sat. 3pm, Fox); No. 6 Houston at No. 12 Texas Tech (Sat. 6:30pm, ESPN) … Houston (11 straight) and Illinois (8) are both riding long winning streaks.
⛳️ Golf: The American Express (Fri-Sun, Golf/ESPN+); Hero Dubai Desert Classic (Fri-Sun, Golf) … Min Woo Lee and Pierceson Coody (-10) lead in California; Francesco Molinari (-7) led after Round 1 in Dubai, with the second round already underway.
⚽️ EPL: Newcastle vs. Aston Villa(Sun. 9am, Peacock); Arsenal vs. Manchester United (Sun. 11:30am, Peacock) … Matchday 23 of 38.
⚽️ Friendly: USWNT vs. Paraguay (Sat. 5:30pm, TNT) … In Los Angeles.
Jesse (R) rocking his Donovan McNabb jersey on a family trip to Detroit. (Kathleen Dobe-Call)
Today’s reader submission is especially timely given the QB situation in Denver, with backup Jarrett Stidham stepping in for the injured Bo Nix.
Kathleen Dobe-Call (Syracuse, New York) writes:
Since we’re lifelong Syracusans, we of course closely follow SU teams. Our younger son, Jesse, was just a toddler when Donovan McNabb was drafted by the Eagles, so he quickly claimed Philadelphia as his NFL team. He wore his McNabb jersey everywhere — even to a Lions game when we took the boys to Detroit.
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He was crushed in 2005 when the Eagles lost the Super Bowl. He got his hopes up again in 2017 when they were playing so well, but was distraught when Carson Wentz went down with an injury, because he really thought they had a chance to go deep.
As the Eagles made their playoff run, Jesse was excited that Nick Foles kept leading them to wins, but he tried not to get too confident, especially once we realized the Patriots would be their Super Bowl opponent.
Jesse came home from college to watch Super Bowl LII with us, and we gathered around the living room TV together. As the teams traded touchdowns in the second half, we started to get that familiar sinking feeling that Tom Brady would pull it off yet again.
But when Foles made that fourth-down pass to keep the drive alive, Jesse jumped up and yelled, “SO HELP ME GOD, IF NICK FOLES WINS THIS SUPER BOWL FOR US, I’M NAMING MY FIRST DOG AFTER HIM!”
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Sure enough, Foles then threw the touchdown to Zach Ertz, and it was upheld! More tense moments followed, until Brady’s Hail Mary fell incomplete. The Eagles had won their first Super Bowl! Jesse was ecstatic! I was so, so happy for him. And sure enough, three years later, when Jesse got his first apartment, he got a sweet little corgi.
Meet Foles…
Jesse and Foles. (Kathleen Dobe-Call)
✍️ Submit your story: Do you have a fondest sports memory? Or an example of sports having a positive impact on your life? If you’d like to share, email me at kendall.baker@yahooinc.com. We hope to feature at least one story per week throughout 2026.
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🏀 NBA midseason grades
(Mallory Bielecki/Yahoo Sports)
Every NBA team has played 41 games and most have played more, which means we’re due for midseason report cards.
In addition to Yahoo Sports’ original offerings, we have a growing list of best-in-class partners. Here are the best reads of the week, courtesy of the Yahoo Sports Network.
There is a purity to this level of basketball. No pro dreams clouding minds. No bank accounts overflowing with NIL money. No scholarships tying players to the program. “Other levels are transactional,” associate head coach Nettie Respondek said. “There’s nothing holding these girls here. They can walk away at any time. But they play because they love their team, they love the game and they love the work.”
Whether it’s fellow pros, family or just another golf writer, everyone has been asking him the same thing lately: “What’s different, mate?” The truth: Tommy still doesn’t know. “It’s an obvious question to ask,” Fleetwood admits. “Surely there must be something different. I ask myself that all the time as well.”
Ateba Gautier, a Cameroon-born middleweight built like a perfect Mr. Olympia, is an exception to the rule. He happens to be a lover AND a fighter. For Gautier, fisticuffs are an act of love. Love of fighting. Love of the warrior standing opposite him, welcoming him into the pocket. Love of the sport, the moment, and the ritual of parting a man from his senses. It’s a love of fraternity, because to be locked in the cage is a shared experience that will last forever.
When Carlos Beltrán was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame on Tuesday night, collectors might have started searching for his key rookie cards. Here’s the problem: One of those cards, Beltrán’s 1995 Topps Traded rookie, features a photo of a teammate who never climbed higher than Class AA. Beltrán isn’t alone with this unfortunate case of mistaken identity. In fact, he’s not even the first Hall of Famer to have an image of someone else pictured on his card.
🏀 NBA trivia
The MVP favorites at the midpoint. (Joe Murphy/NBAE via Getty Images)
The last seven NBA MVP Awards went to non-Americans, and that streak looks poised to continue as the current betting favorites for this season’s award are Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (Canada) and Luka Dončić (Slovenia).
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Question: Who was the last American to win NBA MVP?
Hint: Guard.
Answer at the bottom.
🏈 The Cowboys’ drought continues
Cowboys fans wear bags over their heads during a 2010 game against the Jags. (Chris Chambers/Getty Images)
This weekend’s NFC title game, which yet again does not feature the Cowboys, serves as our annual reminder that “Big D” has had a rough go of it for, well, a while now.
The drought continues: Dallas’ last trip to the Conference Championship came all the way back in 1995, a 30-year drought that’s the longest in the NFC and third-longest in the NFL. In fact, just six other teams across the “Big Four” leagues have suffered such a run of final four futility.
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🏈 NFL: Browns (last trip to the final four: 1989) and Dolphins (1992)
⚾️ MLB: Pirates (1992) and Reds (1995)
🏀 NBA: Wizards (1979) and Hornets (never, enfranchised in 1988)
One is not like the others: It’s not all that surprising that the six teams above have endured such droughts; they’re not exactly considered “Blue Bloods.” But the Cowboys? They’re “America’s Team”! The most valuable sports franchise in the world! Yet they haven’t reached their league’s semifinals in three decades and counting. But hey, if they pull it off next year, that might just warrant another eight-episode Netflix documentary.
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Four starting quarterbacks remain in this year’s NFL playoffs. One has thrown as many regular-season passes as you have over the last two years. One is in the midst of a remarkable career rehabilitation. One is already getting fitted for GOAT status after just two seasons.
And then there’s Matthew Stafford. Depending on your perspective, he’s either bound straight for Canton or a fortunate stat-padder, no in-between. And what he does this weekend in the NFC championship is going to give one side of those perspectives a whole lot of new ammunition.
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Stafford is absolutely a member of the Hall of Very Good, but Hall of Fame? That’s where it gets tricky, and the first task when considering Stafford is to consider what exactly your standards are for the Hall of Fame. Should the Hall of Fame select just a tiny handful of players from every generation, or should the Hall expand and contract based on the talent under scrutiny? Should players be compared to their peers, or across all of NFL history?
You can frame the debate on Stafford however you want to achieve your desired outcome — Hall of Famer or close-but-not-quite. Let’s dig in on some of the philosophical questions that accompany every Hall of Fame application:
Was he among the best quarterbacks of his generation?
It’s Stafford’s bad luck to be playing quarterback in the absolute Golden Era for quarterbacking. It’s tough to get much notice for your play when you’re in the mix with Brady, Manning, Rodgers and Mahomes. Stafford is firmly in the second tier of quarterbacks — Matt Ryan, Philip Rivers, Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson — and an unquestioned star, but is that enough to get him to Canton?
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Was he among the best quarterbacks of any given season?
This one, we can track. Outside of two seasons (2023 and 2025) Stafford hasn’t received any meaningful support from voters assessing his year-to-year credentials. He only has one notable MVP finish (8th in 2023, though he could win this year) and just three Pro Bowl seasons in his 17 years in the league. Again, it’s tough when you’re fighting for elbow room against at least two of the heads on the Mount Rushmore of QBs, but still … isn’t that what a Hall of Famer is supposed to do?
Did he win games?
Here’s where we have to start applying some retroactive grace to Stafford’s career. He labored in Detroit for 12 long years, a stretch where Detroit only reached the playoffs three times and didn’t win a single game. Stafford led the league in game-winning drives in three of these seasons, in part because that was the only way the Lions could win. Once Stafford hit LA, of course, things changed in a hurry to the tune of a Super Bowl victory in his very first season there.
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His final tally in Detroit: 74-90-1 (.452)
His running tally in LA: 46-28 (.622)
In his first season in Los Angeles, Matthew Stafford led the Rams to a Super Bowl victory. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
(Wally Skalij via Getty Images)
Did he win big games?
This is why the 2025 season is so important for Stafford’s Hall of Fame case. Two Super Bowl wins in five seasons, combined with his massive stats, ought to be more than enough to usher Stafford into the Hall eventually. Stafford doesn’t yet have the epic Big Moment that Eli Manning claims, but two rings make a pretty good case all their own.
Did he put up big numbers?
Absolutely. Stafford currently ranks sixth all-time in passing yardage, and he could pass Aaron Rodgers by Halloween if Rodgers retires. Tom Brady, Drew Brees and Peyton Manning are likely out of reach, but Brett Favre at No. 4 could be in play with two more decent seasons. Stafford also ranks 7th in career touchdowns — Rivers is two ahead of him — and in the top 10 in passes both attempted and completed. In technical terms: the dude has spent his career slinging it.
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The knock on Stafford’s numbers, of course, is that so many of them came in the service of futile causes, both in games and seasons already lost. “Stat Padford” is a wicked nickname that nonetheless serves its purpose. If Detroit had been a relevant team in competitive games and seasons, would Stafford’s gaudy numbers still look the same?
Once you get past Brady and Manning, Hall of Fame candidacies are basically campaigns, and campaigns are won and lost based on storytelling. Stafford is setting up for a perfect narrative arc here — laboring for a decade-plus on a terrible team, then exploding once he got some talent around him. Going from QB obscurity to a late-career MVP and Super Bowl appearances would be an easy story to tell for a Hall of Fame campaign.
So there you go. Matt Stafford might just have a whole lot more to play for this weekend than just a single season’s success. Football immortality might just be on the line.
The College Football Playoff will stay at 12 teams for the 2026 season.
Sources told Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger that college football’s conference commissioners could not agree on an expanded format for the postseason ahead of Friday’s deadline set by ESPN. That lack of an agreement means the playoff will include five conference champions and seven at-large teams for the third straight season.
It’s pretty clear that those in charge of college football want to expand the CFP again. They just can’t agree on how they want to do it. The Big Ten and SEC hold the decision-making power for the playoff. The Big Ten wants to double the size of the playoff to 24 teams. The SEC wants a 16-team playoff that adds four at-large teams. There’s been no common ground. Yet.
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The wrangling on the playoff format lasted for much of the 2025 season and is set to continue until the playoff inevitably expands … until the SEC and the Big Ten come to an agreement. One option on the table? A 16-team playoff for multiple years before the playoff expands to 24 teams like the second-tier FCS playoffs.
Other conferences are amenable to the SEC’s 16-team idea, but they’re also the minority voices in the room. Thanks to a 2024 vote, the playoff format decisions ultimately come down to the common ground the Big Ten and SEC can find.
The 2027 title game is even later
If you thought there was a long wait for the 2026 title game on Jan. 19, you better start prepping for next season. That wait is going to be nearly a week longer.
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The 2027 CFP national championship game in Las Vegas has an announced date of Jan. 25. That’s the week after Martin Luther King Jr. day — the date of the first two CFP title games in the 12-team playoff era.
The dates of the other games haven’t been announced, but if the quarterfinals are on Jan. 1 again, it reasons that the semifinals will be played on Thursday, Jan. 14 and Friday, Jan. 15 to prevent a team from playing on less than a week’s rest and having a three-week gap between the semifinals and title game.
ESPN again has the TV rights to the CFP — hence the network’s deadline for expansion talks — and it will sublicense games to TNT for a third straight season. TNT will broadcast a semifinal game for the first time in 2027 in addition to two first-round games and two quarterfinal games. This past season, TNT showed two first-round games while the nine other playoff games were on ESPN’s networks.
Fernando Mendoza’s next snap could be with the Las Vegas Raiders.
The 2025 Heisman Trophy winner announced Friday that he would declare for the 2026 NFL Draft. Mendoza is widely expected to be the No. 1 overall pick in April after he led Indiana to a 16-0 season and a win in the national championship game over Miami.
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Mendoza rushed for a touchdown in the 27-21 win over the Hurricanes. It’s a play that immediately became the most famous in Indiana football history as it provided the winning margin in the Hoosiers’ first national title.
“We called the quarterback draw and we were hoping they’d do a [cover] 2 Tampa drop eight where they basically kind of like defend in front of the line, it being fourth-and-5 and us likely to throw the ball in the red zone,” Mendoza told ESPN after the game. “We were anticipating them, ‘Hey let’s drop back, let’s make Mendoza throw in a tight window to one of his stud receivers’ which, you know, is a good thought. However they didn’t come out in that.
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“They came out in something that was a little bit of that, a little bit not and … play clock rolling down, I’m like, ‘Screw it, here we go.’ I see half the field going zone, half the field going man, I’m like, ‘Wow, if it’s man I’m supposed to throw it, if it’s zone I’m supposed to run it so I’m like, ‘You know what, screw it, I’m gonna run it myself, I’m going to die on that field,’ and we got in.”
It was Mendoza’s 48th touchdown of the season. He threw for 41 and added seven more on the ground while completing 72% of his passes and throwing for over 3,500 yards with just six interceptions.
The Cal transfer was phenomenal in his only season at Indiana. He joined the Hoosiers after spending two years at Cal and had five games with more touchdowns than incompletions. Before he was 16-of-27 passing for 186 yards in the title game, Mendoza had thrown eight touchdown passes to just five incompletions across Indiana’s first two playoff games.
Mendoza’s announcement was merely a formality in the days after Indiana’s win. The Hoosiers had telegraphed his NFL intentions when the transfer portal window was open by signing TCU QB Josh Hoover. Hoover spent four seasons at TCU and has one year of eligibility remaining.
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Las Vegas Raiders need a quarterback
Mendoza is considered the clear top quarterback in the 2026 draft after Oregon’s Dante Moore announced that he would return to school for the 2026 season. And it just so happens that the Raiders are in desperate need of better quarterback play.
Las Vegas went 3-14 in 2025 and clinched the No. 1 overall pick with a loss to the New York Giants in Week 17. After Pete Carroll was hired to be the team’s coach ahead of the season, the Raiders traded for former Seattle Seahawks QB Geno Smith with the hope that Smith could replicate what he had done over the past three seasons with the Seahawks.
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That didn’t happen. Smith was 302-of-448 passing for 3,025 yards and threw 17 interceptions in 15 games. That was two more than any other QB threw all season.
Carroll was fired after the season and Smith’s future with the franchise is especially unclear after the 2026 season. He has a $26.5 million cap hit this upcoming season as part of a two-year extension he signed with the franchise. But Las Vegas can release Smith after the 2026 season and leave no dead money on the team’s salary cap for the 2027 season.
If (or when) Mendoza is taken at No. 1 overall, he’ll be the third quarterback to win the national title and the Heisman in the same season before being picked first in the NFL Draft along with Cam Newton and Joe Burrow.
The Raiders need a quarterback. Mendoza is the best one in the draft. Easy. He fits the profile of a top-10 pick with his ability to run the offense at a high level, strong arm talent and enough mobility to keep plays alive under duress. No one is confusing him for a Drake Maye- or Josh Allen-level athlete, but he’s not the stiff many have made him out to be. This is a fine and logical pick for the Raiders.
