Sports
Joel Embiid dominates with 40-point effort to push Sixers past Pelicans
Jan 31, 2026; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; New Orleans Pelicans forward Zion Williamson (1) controls the ball against Philadelphia 76ers forward Jabari Walker (33) during the first quarter at Xfinity Mobile Arena. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-Imagn Images Joel Embiid had 40 points and 11 rebounds and the host Philadelphia 76ers held off the New Orleans Pelicans 124-114 on Saturday night.
Kelly Oubre Jr. added 19 points and 10 rebounds, while Tyrese Maxey scored 18. VJ Edgecombe had 15 points, and Jared McCain added 12 for the Sixers.
Saddiq Bey scored 34 points, Trey Murphy III had 19, Jeremiah Fears scored 12, Zion Williamson had 11 and Jose Alvarado recorded 10 for the Pelicans.
Philadelphia led by 14 points early in the third quarter before Bey scored seven straight New Orleans points and Murphy added a 3-pointer to trim the lead to 80-74. The Pelicans got within six points twice more, the second time being 87-81 at the end of the period.
Alvarado made a 3-pointer to start the fourth-quarter scoring, and Williamson added four points to pull the Pelicans within 90-88. Embiid made a 3-pointer, but New Orleans got within two points on two more occasions.
Consecutive baskets by Embiid and Edgecombe gave Philadelphia a 102-96 lead. Alvarado’s 3-pointer and Bey’s field goal completed an 11-2 run that gave New Orleans a 107-104 lead.
The score was tied twice more before Embiid made a jumper, Dominick Barlow dunked and Embiid made a free throw to spur a 16-6 run that put the Sixers in charge.
Murphy missed all seven of his 3-point attempts in a win against Memphis on Friday, but he made his first attempt to give New Orleans the biggest lead of the first quarter, 14-8. After that, the score was tied three times and the lead changed hands six times, the last coming when Micah Peavy’s 3-pointer gave the Pelicans a 33-31 lead at the end of the first quarter.
Trendon Watford scored five points, Embiid had four and Philadelphia began the second quarter with a 14-5 spurt that produced a 45-38 lead. The Sixers later pushed the lead to nine on a 3-pointer by McCain.
Embiid’s six points and Oubre’s field goal extended the lead to 15 before Murphy’s dunk left the Sixers with a 67-54 halftime lead.
–Field Level Media
Sports
NBA Slam Dunk Contest Falls Flat Once Again
NBA All-Star Saturday Night honored its self-imposed curfew and ended before 8 p.m. Eastern, allowing viewers in certain markets to catch the end of “Wheel of Fortune.”
Fittingly, the conclusion of the Slam Dunk Contest that capped the festivities in Inglewood, Calif., recalled a would-be “Before & After” puzzle: VINCE CARTER BRYANT.
There stood Vince Carter, TV analyst and first dunk champ of the millennium, offering encouragement to San Antonio Spurs rookie Carter Bryant. Bryant needed a 47.5 on his second dunk of the final round to eclipse Miami’s Keshad Johnson after delivering a perfect 50 with his first.
A competition that introduced its greenhorn participants with fictitious action movie trailers had at last attained drama worthy of Tinseltown.
Instead, it limped to an anticlimactic finale as fans settled for lackluster over blockbuster again.
Johnson and Bryant defeated Jaxson Hayes of the Los Angeles Lakers and Orlando Magic rookie Jase Richardson to reach the finals. Each took part in the contest for the first time.
Along the way, Richardson fell on his back and appeared to bump his head after an ill-timed attempt on a 360 lob. He emerged uninjured.
As actor, comedian and noted roundball lover Michael Rapaport took to X to suggest the NBA “cancel this shit before someone gets hurt,” the men dunked on. Someone needed to win, and indeed, people wanted to, if only because it beat the alternative.
“Just losing in general, no matter what it is. I could care less if it was an Uno game, I could care less if it was running lines, I could care less if it’s a shooting competition,” Bryant said. “I feel like losing is something that burns. I just hate it. That’s just something you don’t want to feel.”
The same social media platforms that lazily lambasted the field for being relative unknowns featured footage of Bryant executing the very dunk he was aiming for: bouncing the ball off the glass and finishing with a thunderous reverse.
“I’ve been doing that dunk since I was 14 years old,” said Bryant, a 20-year-old from Riverside, Calif. “Just the ball didn’t roll my way tonight.”
Bryant settled for a different dunk to produce a score knowing it wouldn’t top the ever-smiling and dancing Johnson, who took the court alongside rapper E-40 and skied over him for his initial first-round dunk.
Johnson surely did his part to uphold the hype in a contest that has given fans only four participants in each of the past five All-Star weekends. As ever, the judges’ table housed dunking royalty representing an era when players’ attitudes toward the contest and game were different.
Kudos, then, to Carter. While he might have lingered around Bryant for a few seconds too long as Saturday afternoon approached evening out Cali way, he admirably threw support instead of shade. That produced what the peppy Johnson called “contagious” energy.
“I feel like he loved being out here. He loved giving back,” Johnson said. “Him being able to embrace me, embrace the other participants. You know when something is real, and I feel like his love, his knowledge he was trying to get to us and him being accessible to us, it was real love, and I felt that.”
Now for coaxing contemporary dunkers approaching Carter’s profile into the contest, too.
Whether dunks take flight outside LA or elsewhere, it shouldn’t take incentives to give fans a good show, but here we are.
Someone should grab the wheel, or else the “Wheel” could look even more attractive next year.
Sports
Baba Miller, Moustapha Thiam propel Cincinnati past Utah
Feb 15, 2026; Cincinnati, Ohio, USA; Cincinnati Bearcats center Moustapha Thiam, back, hugs forward Baba Miller after their team’s win against the Utah Utes at Fifth Third Arena. Mandatory Credit: Aaron Doster-Imagn Images Baba Miller slammed home a dunk with 36.9 seconds remaining and grabbed a key rebound moments later as host Cincinnati rallied for a 69-65 win over Utah in Big 12 play on Sunday afternoon.
Miller finished with 13 points and seven rebounds while Moustapha Thiam added 15 and 10, respectively, to send Cincinnati (14-12, 6-7 Big 12) to its third straight victory.
Day Day Thomas led the Bearcats with 16 points and Keyshuan Tillery added 10 off the bench.
Don McHenry scored 18 points and Keanu Dawes added 16 to go along with 14 rebounds for Utah (9-16, 1-11), which fell to 0-9 in road games this season.
Ibrahima Traore converted a layup with 4:20 remaining and started a 6-0 run that put Utah up 65-60 with 1:56 left in a back-and-forth game.
Miller’s dunk with 36.9 seconds left gave Cincinnati a 66-65 lead. Dawes missed a straight-away 3-pointer with 23 seconds remaining and Miller grabbed the rebound. Thomas converted two free throws with 18 seconds left for a three-point lead.
McHenry was long on a 3-pointer with four seconds left that would have tied the game.
Cincinnati opened the game with a bang as Thiam won the opening tip to Thomas, who dribbled down the right side and lobbed to Miller for an alley-oop dunk in the opening four seconds of the game. Miller was honored before the game with a game ball by head coach Wes Miller and given a standing ovation for reaching the 1,000-point plateau in his career against UCF last Sunday.
The Bearcats took an early 14-8 lead before Utah ran off 10 straight points thanks to 3-pointers from Kendyl Sanders and Dawes and four points from Terrence Brown.
Utah was up 20-16 before Cincinnati answered with a 12-0 run, highlighted by consecutive 3-pointers from Tillery. Eventually the Bearcats built their biggest lead of the half at 32-23 on a Miller dunk with five minutes left.
But the Utes rallied with an 11-5 run and trailed by only three at 37-34 at halftime despite Cincinnati’s 18-6 advantage in the paint.
–Field Level Media
Sports
Tariq Francis' game-high 21 points enough for Rutgers to beat Maryland
Feb 15, 2026; Piscataway, New Jersey, USA; Rutgers Scarlet Knights guard Tariq Francis (0) dribbles up court against the Maryland Terrapins during the second half at Jersey Mike’s Arena. Mandatory Credit: Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images Tariq Francis had a game-high 21 points, Harun Zrno scored 11 of his 13 in the second half and Rutgers broke a seven-game slide with a 68-57 win over Maryland on Sunday in Piscataway, N.J.
The Scarlet Knights shot 41.5% overall, but they maintained a 50% clip with just two turnovers in the second half to win a matchup deprived of much offense.
Zrno knocked down three 3-pointers early in the second to help Rutgers pull away. Dylan Grant posted nine points and six rebounds, and Emmanuel Ogbole had a team-high nine rebounds for Rutgers (10-15, 3-11 Big Ten).
Darius Adams dropped 13 points, David Coit scored 12 and Solomon Washington racked up 11 points and 14 boards for Maryland (10-15, 3-11).
The Scarlet Knights broke away from a halftime tie by making 7 of their first 11 shots of the second half for a double-digit lead.
Zrno’s first 3-pointer of the day anchored an opening 7-0 run, which prompted a Maryland timeout. Later, he hit two consecutive open treys, and Francis’ jumper made it 44-34 Rutgers with 12:55 left. Kaden Powers added a steal and a score for a 12-point margin.
The lead ballooned to 52-39 at the 8:39 mark before Maryland clawed within five over the next four minutes.
Out of the under-4:00 TV timeout, Adams drove to the basket and was whistled for elbowing Zrno. Francis hit his only 3-pointer of the day on the ensuing possession to put Rutgers up 60-51.
Maryland drew no closer than six from there, as Jamichael Davis and Francis went 8-for-8 from the line to finish the game.
Rutgers shot 34.5% and Maryland made 34.3% in a rocky first half.
The Scarlet Knights led 18-13 with seven minutes left, but Maryland nosed ahead with an 8-2 run capped by Washington’s dunk. Rutgers answered with consecutive jumpers by Davis and Francis, but the Terrapins drew even at 27 by halftime, with Washington making 1 of 2 free throws in the final second.
–Field Level Media
NBA Slam Dunk Contest Falls Flat Once Again
Baba Miller, Moustapha Thiam propel Cincinnati past Utah
