NBA:

In the NBA Saturday night, the Golden State Warriors faced the Oklahoma City Thunder. In what’s become commonplace this season, Stephen Curry put on a show. He had 46 points along with 12 three’s to tie the NBA record for most 3’s in a game. He also beat the NBA record for most 3’s in a season…set by non other than Steph Curry himself last year.  Steph is now first, second, and third for most three’s in a season. And, he still has 24 games left this season! Although Kevin Durant put up a good fight with 37 points, Curry’s 12 threes including one from 38 feet out with 0.6 seconds left on the clock gave the Warriors the edge as they defeated the Thunder. Warriors, 121 Thunder, 118.

Also in the NBA Saturday night, Karl Anthony-Towns had a triple double to lead the Minnesota Timberwolves past the New Orleans Pelicans. At the end of the game with only a couple of seconds left on the clock, Andrew Wiggins drove to the hoop and got fouled. Wiggins then sunk both free throws to push the Timberwolves ahead for the win. Timberwolves, 112 Pelicans, 110.

MLB

Just two days after Dexter Fowler said he was heading to the Baltimore Orioles for a reported $33 Million, he changed his mind and will remain with the Chicago Cubs. He’ll receive $8 Mill for one year with an option for 2017 worth $9Mill.

NFL

In other trade news, looks like San Francisco 49ers QB Colin Kaepernick wants out. Kaepernicks agents expressed their client wants permission from the team to seek a trade. Apparently, 49ers’ management has a disconnect as they claim Kaepernick is happy and wants to stay. We’ll see how this turns out.

NBA

It was another insane night for Steph Curry and the Golden State Warriors. Not only did Steph score 51 points against the Orlando Magic, he hit a 44 foot shot from the half court line. Is there anything this guy can’t do? Warriors 130, Magic 114.

NBA

It was a game dominated by the Miami Heat much, but “Splash Brothers” Steph Curry and Klay Thompson bailed out the Golden State Warriors yet again; not the kind of bail where you look for bail bondsmen in New Britain. But it was bailing out on the team which you can learn more about it here. Curry had 42 points, Thompson 33. The 3-pointer Curry squeaked past the NBA’s leading shot-blocker in the final 38 seconds ultimately clenched the game for the Warriors. Curry has now scored a 3-pointer in his 127th consecutive game tying the NBA record set by the Atlanta Hawks’ Kyle Korver in 2014. Curry will have his chance to break that record Tuesday against the Orlando Magic. Warriors 118, Heat 112.

MLB

Leading Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump called out the owners of the Chicago Cubs for spending money against his campaign. In a weirdly ominous tweet on Monday, the billionaire said “I hear the Rickets family, who own the Chicago Cubs, are secretly spending $’s against me. They better be careful, they have a lot to hide!”  On Wednesday, co-owner Tom Rickets responded, “It’s a little surreal when Donald Trump threatens your mom.” He defended his family’s political spending and denied having anything to hide, saying, “we’re pretty much an open book. We stand up for what we believe in.”

NFL

The NFL Scouting Combine has started and will continue all week. The Combine is a showcase held every year at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, where college football players “try out” for various NFL teams. They perform physical and mental tests for the coaches and scouts. Players are invited by invitation only and are often the best athletes in the league. Strength, speed and agility are more important than win-loss records. It’s an important week for the aspiring professional athletes. Their performance at the combine will influence their draft position come April, which has a direct effect on how much money they’ll make.

MLB

The Baltimore Orioles have signed free-agent outfielder Dexter Fowler to a three-year deal worth about $35 million. Fowler recently rejected an offer from the Cubs, who he was with for only one year. Before that, he was with the Colorado Rockies for six years. In his only year with Chicago, Fowler set career records in home runs, walks, and strike-outs. The Cubs will be compensated with a first round draft pick. The regular baseball season starts in six weeks.

NBA

It has gone from bad to worse for the Miami Heat. After losing several players to injuries and medical conditions this season, the Heat are now down to Goran Tragic as the lone experienced point guard for the team. Backup point guard Beno Udrih suffered a foot injury early on in Monday’s game against the Indiana Pacers. The injury is more serious than previously thought, requiring season-ending surgery. While Miami lost Udrih, they beat the Pacers in overtime. Heat 101, Pacers 93.

NFL

File this under “things we already suspected.” Washington Redskins president all but confirmed quarterback Robert Griffin III is finished in Washington. When asked if he thought RGIII would make it back next season, he responded, “Well, no.” Griffin didn’t play a single game this last season, and has been on a steady decline since his breakout rookie year. Allen said there are teams interested in RGIII, and the QB will have his pick of “a couple teams that will let him excel in the future.”

NBA

It almost looked like they weren’t going to make it. After being up by 23 points, the Golden State Warriors squandered their lead over the Atlanta Hawks on Monday, giving Atlanta the lead early in the fourth quarter. The Warriors were able to rebound in the final minutes and clench a victory, making them the fastest team in NBA history to get to 50 wins in a season. The game was Atlanta’s fourth straight home loss. All-star Stephen Curry led the Warriors with 36 points. Warriors 102, Hawks 92

The Cleveland Cavaliers 5-game winning streak came to a screeching halt Mondays after losing to the Detroit Pistons. The Cavaliers just won a great game in Oklahoma on Sunday, while the Pistons were coming off a disappointing loss to the New Orleans Pelicans, a game that featured Pelicans’ center Anthony Davis scoring 59 points. The Pistons have now beaten the Cavaliers twice this season. Pistons 96, Cavaliers 88.

NFL

An arbitrator ruled that the NFL wrongly withheld $120 million from the NFL Players Association, the organization in charge of representing NFL players. Every year, the NFL reports its annual revenue, and that figure helps determines the salary cap for the coming season. Over the last three years, the NFL underreported its earnings by over $100 million. The Players Association discovered the discrepancy last month during a routine audit. The league is calling the error “a technical accounting issue.” Of that money, about $50 million will go to players’ salaries. There are 32 teams in the league, meaning the salary caps for each team, which are already expected to rise substantially for the coming season, will increase an additional $1.56 million.

NBA

New Orleans Pelicans center Anthony Davis had a banner day in Sunday’s victory over the Detroit Pistons. Davis reeled in 20 rebounds and broke a franchise record, scoring 59 points. The previous team record was 50 points. Davis joins NBA greats Shaquille O’Neal and Wilt Chamberlain as the only players to score at least 55 points and get 20 rebounds in a single game. Pelicans 111, Pistons 106.

The Golden State Warriors advanced to 49-5 after beating the Los Angeles Clippers. The final score was close but much of that was due to the 13 points the Warriors conceded during garbage time. The victory came just one day after the Warriors’ worst loss of the season, falling 105-137 against the Portland Trailblazers on Friday. Saturday’s game against the Clippers puts them back on track as they chase what might end up being the best win-loss record in NBA history. That honor currently belongs to Michael Jordan and the ’96 Bulls, who went 72-10 for the season. Warriors 115, Clippers 112.

Kevin Love scored 29 points in the Cleveland Cavaliers victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder on Sunday, giving the team their 5th straight win. LeBron James had 25 points, 11 assists, and seven rebounds. The Cavaliers are 10-3 under new head coach Tyronn Lue, putting them 40-14 on the season. Cavaliers 115, Thunder 92.

NFL

It has not been a good year for former Dallas Cowboys running back Joseph Randle. Randle was arrested for the fifth time in the last 17 months. Randle was booked in his home state of Kansas early Sunday morning with three counts of aggravated battery, one count of drug possession, and one count of criminal damage to property. Prior to being cut by the Cowboys, Randle was arrested for shoplifting and domestic violence. The team finally dropped the player last November. Since then, he’s been arrested three more times.

MLB

The Miami Marlins are preparing for the upcoming season and trying something new: shaving. The team announced it is adopting a strict no-facial-hair policy, effective immediately. New manager Don Mattingly made the change as a way to promote “consistency” among the team. Here’s hoping a clean shave helps give the Marlins a clean slate. They haven’t had a winning season in seven years.

NASCAR

Denny Hamlin won the Daytona 500 in a spectacular photo-finish. Coming from behind in the final lap, he beat out Martin Truex Jr. by 0.010 seconds. It was the closest finish in racing history. In this historic race, we saw NASCAR superstars Danica Patrick and Dale Earnhardt Jr. both crash late in the race. The Toyota team made a clean sweep of the podium with Hamlin and Truex in first and second, and teammate Kyle Busch in third.

NBA

The NBA trade deadline came and went on Thursday without much fanfare and with many of the elite players (Dwight Howard, Blake Griffin) remaining with their teams. The Los Angeles Clippers made the biggest trade of the day by making a deal with the Memphis Grizzlies sending Lance Stephenson to Memphis in exchange for Jeff Green. The controversial part of that exchange is the Grizzlies didn’t just do a one for one trade but also gave the Grizzlies a first round pick. This trade makes the Clippers look desperate to get rid of Stephenson but you never know.

The most dramatic and apparently fitting departure during the trade day was Markieff Morris falling off his hoverboard as he was leaving the Phoenix Suns facility. The Suns were anxious to get rid of the troubled Morris and made a deal to send him to the Washington Wizards. Just last week Morris was seen pushing a teammate by the throat into the bench during a game. The Suns seem happy to see Morris leave by whatever mode of transportation he happened to choose.

NBA

The Sacramento Kings may have spared coach George Karl, but not everyone got away unscathed. The Kings fired assistant coach Vance Walberg on Wednesday, and Karl isn’t quite sure why. Karl detailed his thoughts in an op-ed for The Sacramento Bee, saying the firing left him “disappointed and confused,” arguing that any criticism of the team should be directed at him. But the Kings are looking to “shake things up,” according to GM Vlade Divac. The team currently has a dismal 22-31 record, and Karl was expected to be fired last week. Instead the team, which is contractually obligated to pay Karl another $10 million either way, decided to keep him on. But heads will roll, as they say. Walberg was next in line and the price was right.

BOXING

Professional Boxer Manny Pacquiao has been dropped by sponsor Nike after making derogatory remarks about same-sex couples. Pacquiao has been endorsing the company for just over eight years. The fighter made a recent appearance on Filipino television where he claimed animals don’t have same-sex relationships. Humans do, making people “worse than animals.“ Within hours, he took to twitter to apologize. But faster than you can tweet, “I’m sorry for hurting people by comparing homosexuals to animals,” Nike dropped the boxer, condemning his comments as “abhorrent.” An eight-time champion, Paquiao is the Philippines’ most famous living celebrity and most popular athlete. He’s also a member of the Philippines’ House of Representatives and is expected to pursue a seat in the Senate and and possibly even the Presidency after what is likely to be his final match in April.

NBA

As Thursday’s NBA trade deadline fast approaches, teams are changing up their rosters, both in an attempt to bolster their lineups going forward, and to improve their playoff chances this year.

The Orlando Magic traded power forward Tobias Harris to the Detroit Pistons in exchange for point guard Brandon Jennings and power forward Ersan Ilyasova. Harris just signed a four-year $64 million contract with the Magic last year, which the Pistons will honor. The Pistons are on the cusp of a possible playoff and hope that the young, promising Harris will help their chances before it’s too late.

The Charlotte Hornets are one of the teams kicking the tires on Houston Rockets center Dwight Howard. The eight-time All-Star is making $22.3 million this season, and isn’t expected to return next year.

Despite a media hungry for big-name trades, Los Angeles Clippers president and coach Doc Rivers insists they’re not trading Blake Griffin. Griffin, you might recall, broke his hand after punching his friend and assistant equipment manager in the face in December. He should hit the court again soon, and when he does, he’ll be wearing a Clippers jersey.

UFC

Ronda Rousey considered committing suicide after her loss to Holly Holm in November. Rousey appeared on the Ellen Degeneres show and admitted after her knockout she was in a very bad place. She said, “Honestly, my thought in the medical room, I was sitting in the corner and was like, ‘What am I anymore if I’m not this?'” Rousey said. “Literally sitting there thinking about killing myself. In that exact second, I’m like, ‘I’m nothing. What do I do anymore? No one gives a s— about me anymore without this.”

She eventually reflected on the loss and her feelings and said, “I felt like maybe my role is, everyone has their moment of picking themselves off the floor. I’ve gone through several of mine, but no one had ever seen me go through it. Maybe I just needed to be that example of picking myself off the floor for everyone. Maybe that’s what I’m meant for. I really do believe I’m still undefeated because being undefeated is a choice. Everybody has losses in their life, but I choose to always be undefeated.”

NFL

Maybe the Washington Redskins will use their franchise tag on Kirk Cousins after all. The franchise tag would give Cousins a one-year salary of around $20 million, and would give Washington until July to negotiate a longer-term deal. With RGIII pretty much out of the picture in Washington, the team needs a long-term quarterback. Even if they end up drafting the QB of their dreams, Cousins might, at the very least, be a good short-term option.

NFL

Tuesday is the day when NFL teams can place a franchise tag on their free agent of choice. The deadline for franchise tags is March 1st. To many, franchise tags seem as complicated and inaccessible as the NFL’s definition of what a “catch” is, but they’re actually pretty simple. Using a franchise tag guarantees a player will stay with a team for another season. This is useful when a team is unable to strike a deal with one of their star players before free agency begins. But it doesn’t come cheap. If a player has been stamped with the franchise tag, the team can either reach a long-term agreement with him by July 15th, or they’ll have to pay out the average of the top five salaries for that position in the league, maybe even more if the player was already one of the top earners. So if the Washington Redskins used the franchise tag on Quarterback Kirk Cousins, for instance, his salary for the 2016 season would be close to $20 million. That’s not too likely to happen though. Only eight quarterbacks have ever been tagged since the franchise tag began in 1993.

This year, the Denver Broncos are expected to use the franchise tag on Super Bowl MVP linebacker Von Miller. The Carolina Panthers will use the tag on cornerback Josh Norman if they can’t nail down a contract by March, and the Baltimore Ravens will do the same with with their star kicker Justin Tucker. Another likely candidate is Tampa Bay Buccaneers running back Doug Martin. Martin had a shockingly good season, coming in second in the league for rushing yards.

Since the league’s salary cap is expected to go up quite a bit this year, teams will have more money to pursue the star players they want. This is where franchise tags will come in handy. Last year, the Detroit Lions opted out of tagging Defensive Tackle Ndamukong Suh. As a result, the Miami Dolphins swooped in with a whopping $114 million six-year contract, and the Lions’ secondary hasn’t been quite the same since.

In other sports news, Peyton Manning was one of a number of athletes named in a lawsuit by female students at the University of Tennessee alleging that the school fostered a “hostile sexual environment.”Manning’s name was included in the lawsuit for his behavior in 1996 when he was the QB for the University of Tennessee. According to the lawsuit, Manning “placed his naked genitals in the face of a female trainer” while she was examining him. Manning refuted the trainer’s story and settled a lawsuit with her in 1997. The University of Tennessee has been named in multiple sexual assault incidents involving student athletes over the last few years. Expect this story (with or without Manning’s name) to continue to be in the news.