Thursday Things You Might Have Missed
NFL
The Minnesota Vikings made the announcement on Thursday that they have fired defensive coordinator Ed Donatell after 1 season. Vikings head coach Kevin O'Connell said in a statement:
"Today I informed Ed Donatell we will be going in a different direction at defensive coordinator in 2023. While this was a difficult decision because of the tremendous respect I have for Ed as a person and a coach, I believe it is the right move for the future of our football team."
Philadelphia Eagles offensive tackle Lane Johnson is set to return against the New York Giants on Saturday. He had no injury designation when the report came out on Thursday. The 32-year-old missed the last 2 games of the season with a torn groin.
Thursday came with the Miami Dolphins making a slew of coaching changes. They fired defensive coordinator Josh Boyer, safeties coach Steve Gregory, outside linebackers coach Ty McKenzie, and assistant linebackers coach Steve Ferentz.
NBA
The Boston Celtics stepped up in OT last night against the Golden State Warriors to win 121-118. A game that may have just been 1 game in the regular season but after the finals last season this was an important game to win for the players and the fans. Jayson Tatum scored 34 points and pulled down a career high 19 rebounds, Al Horford had 20 points, 10 rebounds and 3 blocked shots but most importantly knocked down an pivotal 3 pointer in OT. Jaylen Brown contributed 16 points, the most important being the 3 pointer he hit with 19 seconds left in regulation to send the game to OT. Horford saying after the game:
“Yeah, it’s a big game. You know, I wanted to come out here, and I wanted to win. I wanted to win really bad,” Horford said. "It’s a regular season. It’s just one game. It’s over. But it’s an important game."
The Philadelphia 76er's pulling off their 4th straight win Thursday night against the Portland Trailblazers 105-95. Joel Embiid scored 32 points, while James Harden contributed 16 points, 14 assists and 10 rebounds. Damian Lillard had 25 points and 11 assists and Jerami Grant scored 24 points in Portlands losing effort. Embiid saying after the game about his chemistry with Harden:
“I think from the beginning it was easy. When you’ve got two guys with high basketball IQs, you can figure it out everything easy. So it’s all about just playing off of each other. We’ve been doing a wonderful job of doing that.”
Dallas Mavericks forward Christian Wood will miss several games with a broken left thumb. The injury did occur on his non-shooting hand on Wednesday night against the Atlanta Hawks.
MLB
The Seattle Mariners and infielder Tommy La Stella have come to an agreement on a 1 year contract, the financial details of the contract have not been released.
The Kansas City Royals and reliever Aroldis Chapman have agreed on a 1 year, $3.75-million contract that does include performance bonuses.