The Thursday edition of NYT Connections Sports Edition arrives with puzzle #668, serving up a grid that spans pro teams, famous sporting surnames, and terminology drawn from several corners of competition.
What Makes Connections Sports Edition Tick
For newcomers, NYT Connections Sports Edition presents 16 sports-themed words that must be sorted into four thematic groups of four. The twist? You're limited to four mistakes, and the color-coded difficulty system (yellow being easiest, purple being trickiest) means surface-level connections often mislead.
Connections Sports Edition brings the same addictive puzzle format to the world of athletics, featuring athletes, teams, sports terminology, and legendary moments. The game's genius lies in its red herrings, words that could fit multiple sports categories but belong in only one.
Today's Grid at a Glance
Here are the 16 words staring back at you in puzzle #668:
WILD | MAGIC | JUMP | SCORE
NETS | AND ONE | TWINS | ROLEN
MCTOMINAY | PISTONS | FROST | VAN PELT
LACROSSE | HAWKS | TIMBERWOLVES | NIEDERMAYER
A seemingly random collection that somehow connects into four perfect categories.
Strategic Hints (No Spoilers Yet)
Yellow Category Nudge: Begin with one major basketball league, then narrow your search to a single half of its alignment.
Green Category Clue: Think geographically, with one northern state serving as the shared home base across different sports.
Blue Category Hint: These entries become connected when you supply the same first name to each.
Purple Category Teaser: Place one short word before each remaining entry to create four established sports terms.
The Full Solutions
Last chance to solve independently: answers below
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Yellow (Eastern Conference Nba Teams): HAWKS, MAGIC, NETS, PISTONS
MAGIC, HAWKS, PISTONS, and NETS are Eastern Conference NBA teams, representing Orlando, Atlanta, Detroit, and Brooklyn.
AND ONE is the sharp red herring because it sounds immediately basketball-specific, but it belongs to the wordplay group instead.
Green (Minnesota Teams): FROST, TIMBERWOLVES, TWINS, WILD
FROST, TIMBERWOLVES, WILD, and TWINS are Minnesota teams, covering professional hockey, basketball, hockey, and baseball.
WILD and MAGIC resemble ordinary descriptive words, which helps disguise the clean geographic split between their actual groups.
Blue (Scotts): MCTOMINAY, NIEDERMAYER, ROLEN, VAN PELT
ROLEN, VAN PELT, NIEDERMAYER, and MCTOMINAY are all Scotts: Scott Rolen, Scott Van Pelt, Scott Niedermayer, and Scott McTominay.
The mix of baseball, broadcasting, hockey, and soccer makes the repeated first name harder to see than a same-sport surname set.
Purple (Box _____): AND ONE, JUMP, LACROSSE, SCORE
SCORE, LACROSSE, JUMP, and AND ONE all follow BOX, producing box score, box lacrosse, box jump, and box-and-one.
The construction ranges from a statistical summary and a sport variant to an exercise and a basketball defense, so the shared opener does the real connective work.
The Verdict
The Eastern Conference quartet is the likeliest first solve, with four unmistakable NBA identities once AND ONE is resisted.
The real trap lives between basketball and the BOX construction, because AND ONE points strongly toward the NBA while SCORE also fits basketball conversation.
The Scotts group is the streak-decider, since recognizing a shared first name across four different sports contexts requires the widest recall.
Reset and Repeat
Today's best move was looking past the basketball pull of AND ONE and seeing BOX as the true connector. Reset the grid in your mind, enjoy that misdirection, and come back tomorrow for another four-way test.
For now, puzzle #668 is solved. See you at midnight for the next round.
