The Thursday edition of NYT Connections Sports Edition arrives with puzzle #675, serving up a grid that spans team identity, basketball shorthand, hockey equipment, and a compact abbreviation trick.
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 #675:
GAMES | CLIPS | LOGO | WARRIOR
GRIZZ | GUARD | BADGE | MAVS
CREST | SHER-WOOD | GOALTENDER | BAUER
WOLVES | CCM | GATORADE | EMBLEM
A seemingly random collection that somehow connects into four perfect categories.
Strategic Hints (No Spoilers Yet)
Yellow Category Nudge: Think about the visual mark that lets fans recognize a team before reading its name.
Green Category Clue: Listen for the shortened names basketball fans use in casual conversation.
Blue Category Hint: Move from the ice itself to the companies supplying a crucial piece of hockey equipment.
Purple Category Teaser: Treat one letter as a label and ask what it can represent in different sporting contexts.
The Full Solutions
Last chance to solve independently: answers below
---
---
---
---
---
Yellow (A Team's Symbol): BADGE, CREST, EMBLEM, LOGO
LOGO, BADGE, CREST, and EMBLEM are all forms of a team's identifying symbol.
The four are close synonyms, so this is the cleanest set on the board and offers little internal resistance.
Green (Nba Teams, Informally): CLIPS, GRIZZ, MAVS, WOLVES
GRIZZ, CLIPS, WOLVES, and MAVS are informal names for the Grizzlies, Clippers, Timberwolves, and Mavericks.
WARRIOR is the sharp red herring because it points toward the Golden State Warriors, but the grid requires informal team names rather than a singular form of an official name.
Blue (Hockey Stick Manufacturers): BAUER, CCM, SHER-WOOD, WARRIOR
BAUER, CCM, SHER-WOOD, and WARRIOR are hockey stick manufacturers.
WARRIOR creates the overlap with the NBA material, while BAUER, CCM, and SHER-WOOD anchor the intended equipment connection.
Purple (What "g" Might Mean): GAMES, GATORADE, GOALTENDER, GUARD
GUARD, GAMES, GOALTENDER, and GATORADE are all things that the letter G might mean.
G labels a guard position, can denote games in statistics, can identify a goaltender, and serves as the familiar initial for Gatorade. The trick is a shared abbreviation rather than a shared sport.
The Verdict
The symbol set should fall first because LOGO, BADGE, CREST, and EMBLEM form an unusually tight cluster.
The real trap sits between the NBA shorthand and hockey manufacturers, with WARRIOR designed to pull attention toward GRIZZ, CLIPS, WOLVES, and MAVS.
The G group is the streak-decider because its members come from different contexts, so recognizing the letter-based relationship matters more than subject knowledge alone.
Reset and Repeat
Today's best move was refusing to let WARRIOR dictate the basketball group, then spotting the flexible meaning of G. Reset the board and come back tomorrow for another round.
For now, puzzle #675 is solved. See you at midnight for the next round.
