NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for Monday, Nov. 2, 2026 (#770)

Monday’s Connections: Sports Edition from The Athletic and New York Times (NYT) Games is puzzle #770, for Nov. 2, 2026. Hints for each group come first, then the answers in a spoiler section.

How the Sports Edition works

It is the sports version of Connections, built by The Athletic with New York Times Games. You sort 16 sports terms into four groups of four and can make four mistakes. It launched on Feb. 9, 2025, with a football puzzle, and new puzzles post at midnight local time, according to The Athletic’s announcement.

Solving tips

Clear the group with the plainest theme first. When a tile looks like an everyday word, ask whether it could also be a name. Monday’s board rewards that habit, because four of its tiles are not terms at all.

Monday’s hints, #770, Nov. 2, 2026

Monday’s board moves from the basketball court to the football field and ends in front of a net.

• Yellow: Four ways to say a basketball shot went in.
• Green: Four verbs for sending a ball on its way, by hand or along the ground.
• Blue: Four last names. Each belongs to a player who kicks field goals in the NFL (National Football League).
• Purple: Four words that can follow the word “goal.”

Watch for the overlap: a couple of the throwing words sound like they could fit the basketball group, and one basketball word could also follow “goal.”

More of Monday’s puzzles: Connections hints, Wordle hint, Spelling Bee hints and Pips hints. Sunday’s page is still up: Connections: Sports Edition #769. Keep a streak log on our printable weekly calendar.

Monday’s answers, #770, Nov. 2, 2026 (spoilers)

The 16 tiles, spelled out: basket, bucket, field goal and make; bowl, fling, hurl and roll; Bass, Folk, Little and Loop; and crease, line, mouth and post.

• Yellow, A Score in Basketball: Basket, Bucket, Field Goal, Make
• Green, Propel a Ball: Bowl, Fling, Hurl, Roll
• Blue, NFL Kickers: Bass, Folk, Little, Loop
• Purple, Goal ___: Crease, Line, Mouth, Post

What each entry is, group by group:

• Yellow: Four words for a made shot in basketball. A field goal is any basket other than a free throw.
• Green: Four ways to send a ball forward. You bowl or roll it along the ground and fling or hurl it through the air.
• Blue: Four surnames of NFL kickers, as both published solutions label the group.
• Purple: Goal crease, goal line, goal mouth and goal post, all parts of the area around a goal.

Why Monday’s traps worked

Bass, Folk, Little and Loop read like a fish, a music style, a size and a shape, so few players see names at first. Field goal can tempt you toward the purple group, but “goal” comes second in that phrase, while the purple words all come after it.

Beebom and Parade’s solution on Yahoo Tech list the same four groups. Puzzle #771 arrives at midnight.