Sports
Heat, Pelicans bid to enter All-Star break on high note
Feb 9, 2026; Miami, Florida, USA; Miami Heat forward Andrew Wiggins (22) looks on against the Utah Jazz during the third quarter at Kaseya Center. Mandatory Credit: Sam Navarro-Imagn Images The Miami Heat will be short-handed again when they face the host New Orleans Pelicans on Wednesday in the final game before the All-Star break for both teams.
Miami used its 19th different starting lineup of the season and had just 11 available players in Monday’s 115-111 home loss to the Utah Jazz.
The Heat were missing guards Norman Powell (back tightness), Pelle Larsson (right forearm strain) and Tyler Herro (ribs). Powell and Larsson have been ruled out for Wednesday’s contest, while Herro will miss his 15th straight game.
Miami is also monitoring the status of forward Andrew Wiggins, who is listed as questionable with toe inflammation.
With a limited bench against Utah, the Heat were outscored 54-30 in the paint and lost for the third time in their last four games.
Wiggins led Miami with 26 points, while Bam Adebayo added 23 points and 11 rebounds. Rookie guard Kasparas Jakucionis made six 3-pointers and finished with 20 points off the bench.
Jakucionis is shooting 46.8% from 3-point range this season for Miami, which allowed Utah to win for just the fifth time in its last 23 games.
“Gotta figure out how to consistently win games,” Adebayo said. “Doesn’t matter if it’s a back-to-back. Four games in five nights, whatever it is, we gotta find a way to win, even against teams that are, I guess you could say, trying to lose.
“Gotta look in the mirror. That’s the biggest thing, that we don’t look in the mirror enough to see what we can do better, day in, day out. We kind of go with the flow, then when we get behind, it’s kind of when we want to, like, tap in. It’s like we’ve got to have that urgency from the jump and a lot of times, we don’t have that.”
Miami has won 10 of its last 11 meetings with New Orleans, including a 125-106 home victory on Jan. 4.
The Pelicans are looking to build on an impressive 120-94 home win over the Sacramento Kings on Monday.
Trey Murphy III scored 21 points to lead New Orleans. Jeremiah Fears added 20 and Zion Williamson finished with 18 points and six assists.
The Pelicans recorded their largest margin of victory this season while scoring 34 fastbreak points.
“If we’re getting stops on defense and we’re disruptive on the defensive end, that’s going to lead to good transition for us,” New Orleans interim head coach James Borrego said. “This is really good evidence that if you play good defense, it leads to good offense.”
Murphy is shooting 57.5% (23 of 40) from 3-point range over the last three games for the Pelicans, who have won five of their last nine games.
“Our intensity has picked up,” Fears said. “We’ve started playing more as a team, moving the ball. Our chemistry has gotten better along the way.”
The Pelicans are 27th in the league in 3-pointers made per game (11.2), but Murphy’s recent surge is forcing opponents to defend the perimeter.
New Orleans shot 41% (16 of 39) from beyond the arc in the win over Sacramento, and Murphy’s 23 made 3-pointers over a three-game stretch is a franchise record.
–Field Level Media
Sports
Serena Williams, 44, eligible to play pro tennis events Feb. 22
Tennis legend Serena Williams, seen here waving to the crowd after losing the final match of her career to Ajla Tomljanovic 2022 U.S. Open tennis, has suffered two pulmonary embolisms — the first in 2011 and the second in 2017 after the birth of her first child. She was able to return to competition both times but has also said that she needs to be vigilant for the rest of her life when it comes to early detection of blood clots. Whether or not tennis great Serena Williams is considering a comeback, the 23-time Grand Slam champion is now eligible to return as soon as Feb. 22.
The International Tennis Integrity Agency included Williams, 44, on the updated list of reinstated players on Tuesday. That was the last step in a process that began at least as far back as Oct. 6 when her name appeared in the International Registered Testing Pool, a requirement for a return to competition.
Being in the pool and available for random, out-of-competition drug testing for at least six months is a requirement for players who want to return to tennis. Players in the pool are required to inform testers of their location for one hour each day.
“Omg yall I’m NOT coming back. This wildfire is crazy,” Williams posted on social media in December in response to a report of a possible comeback.
As recently as last month, Williams was noncommittal either way.
“I’m just having fun and enjoying my life right now,” she said on the “Today” show in January. “I’m just going to see what happens.”
Williams last played on the WTA Tour at the U.S. Open in 2022. In August of that year, she announced in a Vogue magazine article that she was “evolving away” from tennis.
“I have never liked the word retirement,” she wrote. “It doesn’t feel like a modern word to me. I’ve been thinking of this as a transition, but I want to be sensitive about how I use that word, which means something very specific and important to a community of people. Maybe the best word to describe what I’m up to is evolution.”
If Williams does return, she could seek to enter the ATX Open in Austin, Texas, a WTA 250 tournament from Feb. 23 to March 1. Williams’ older sister, Venus, is still active on tour and received a wild-card entry for both singles and doubles. She had not announced a doubles partner.
Ranked No. 1 for 319 weeks, Serena Williams won 73 singles titles on the WTA Tour and earned nearly $95 million in prize money. She won Wimbledon and the Australian Open seven times each, the U.S. Open six times and the French Open three times.
Williams, who also won 14 major doubles titles with Venus, is the only player to accomplish a career Golden Slam (all four majors) in both singles and doubles.
Williams and her husband, Alexis Ohanian, are raising two daughters.
–Field Level Media
Sports
Bennett Stirtz, Iowa target seventh straight win at Maryland
Iowa guard Bennett Stirtz (14) drives toward the basket against Northwestern guard Jayden Reid (4) and Northwestern forward Nick Martinelli (2) Feb. 8, 2026 at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City, Iowa. It’s not easy to find a signature win on Iowa’s resume. The Hawkeyes have yet to beat a ranked team in four tries.
But by virtue of being nearly flawless against the rest of its competition, Iowa (18-5, 8-4 Big Ten) has risen to No. 20 in the NET Rankings and, barring a late-season collapse, is on its way to gaining a berth in the NCAA Tournament.
The Hawkeyes face another unranked foe Wednesday in College Park, Md., when they put their six-game winning streak on the line against Maryland (9-14, 2-10).
Both teams are coming off wins Sunday in which they got clutch performances from their top threats.
In Maryland’s 67-62 victory at Minnesota, guard David Coit went on a personal 7-0 run in the final 26 seconds and finished with 29 points.
In Iowa’s 76-70 win over visiting Northwestern, guard Bennett Stirtz scored a career-high 36 points to rescue the Hawkeyes from an otherwise lethargic performance.
“We were kind of in a little lull, a little asleep,” Stirtz said. “And I knew that I needed to get going late in the first half.”
Iowa coach Ben McCollum said that it’s the Hawkeyes’ collective effort that allows Stirtz to thrive individually.
“The thing with really good players that people don’t realize is the players around him have to allow him to be great,” McCollum said. “A lot of teams have great players … but their teammates want some more shine out of it, so they won’t allow that player to be great.”
Maryland knows all about Stirtz. He scored 25 points on 10-of-17 shooting when the Hawkeyes rolled to an 83-64 victory on Dec. 6 in Iowa City.
Unlike Stirtz, Coit has been wildly inconsistent this season, often finding himself in the doghouse of first-year coach Buzz Williams.
Despite scoring binges of 43 and 41 points in wins over Penn State and Mount St. Mary’s, Coit has come off the bench in 10 of Maryland’s 23 games, including the win Sunday.
It was a much-need victory as the Terrapins had lost their previous four games by an average margin of 28 points.
“I thought the fight, the togetherness was as good as it’s been in a long, long time,” Williams said.
–Field Level Media
Sports
NFL draft order finalized after Seahawks' Super Bowl victory
Feb 6, 2026; San Francisco, CA, USA; The 2026 NFL Draft logo at the Super Bowl LX Experience at the Moscone Center. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images The order for the 2026 NFL Draft has been finalized, two days after the Seattle Seahawks won Super Bowl LX.
The Seahawks will pick 32nd and last in the first round of the draft due to their solid 29-13 victory over the New England Patriots in last Sunday’s big game.
New England has the No. 31 draft selection.
The first 18 selections were locked in prior to the postseason. The Las Vegas Raiders own the first pick and might have their eyes on Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Fernando Mendoza of Indiana.
The New York Jets, Arizona Cardinals, Tennessee Titans and New York Giants round out the top five.
The Kansas City Chiefs struggled with a 6-11 record but gain a draft pick (No. 9) earlier than usual.
Among playoff teams, the AFC runner-up Denver Broncos have the 30th pick. Denver lost to the Patriots. The Los Angeles Rams, who lost to Seattle in the NFC title game, are No. 29.
DRAFT ORDER
1. Las Vegas Raiders: 3-14 (.538 strength of schedule)
2. New York Jets: 3-14 (.552)
3. Arizona Cardinals: 3-14 (.571)
4. Tennessee Titans: 3-14 (.574)
5. New York Giants: 4-13 (.524)
6. Cleveland Browns: 5-12 (.486)
7. Washington Commanders: 5-12 (.507)
8. New Orleans Saints: 6-11 (.495)
9. Kansas City Chiefs: 6-11 (.514)
10. Cincinnati Bengals: 6-11 (.521)
11. Miami Dolphins: 7-10 (.488)
12. Dallas Cowboys: 7-9-1 (.438)
13. Los Angeles Rams, via Atlanta Falcons: 8-9 (.495)
14. Baltimore Ravens: 8-9 (.507)
15. Tampa Bay Buccaneers: 8-9 (.529)
16. New York Jets, via Indianapolis Colts: 8-9 (.540)
17. Detroit Lions: 9-8 (.490)
18. Minnesota Vikings: 9-8 (.514)
19. Carolina Panthers: 8-9 (.522)
20. Dallas Cowboys, via Green Bay Packers: 9-7-1 (.483)
21. Pittsburgh Steelers: 10-7 (.503)
22. Los Angeles Chargers: 11-6 (.458)
23. Philadelphia Eagles: 11-6 (.476)
24. Cleveland Browns, via Jacksonville Jaguars: 13-4 (.478)
25. Chicago Bears: 11-6 (.458)
26. Buffalo Bills: 12-5 (.471)
27. San Francisco 49ers: 12-5 (.498)
28. Houston Texans: 12-5 (.522)
29. Los Angeles Rams: 12-5 (.526)
30. Denver Broncos: 14-3 (.422)
31. New England Patriots: 14-3 (.391)
32. Seattle Seahawks: 14-3 (.498)
–Field Level Media
Serena Williams, 44, eligible to play pro tennis events Feb. 22
Bennett Stirtz, Iowa target seventh straight win at Maryland
