NYT Connections Sports Edition hints & answers: Thursday, November 5, 2026

Updated: Thursday, November 5, 2026 · Hints reviewed by Omer Liban · New puzzle daily at midnight local time — free from The Athletic. · Puzzle editor: Mark Cooper.

This page has every level of help for the NYT Connections Sports Edition puzzle of Thursday, November 5, 2026: 3 spoiler-free hint tiers that narrow things down step by step, followed by the complete answers with explanations — each behind its own tap-to-reveal card.

Stuck on today's Sports Edition? Same drill as regular Connections: work the tiers below from a single answer per group up to the full explained solution, revealing only as much as you want.

Connections: Sports Edition works exactly like regular Connections — four colour-coded groups from easiest 🟡 yellow to trickiest 🟣 purple — but every category is sports: players, teams, rules, moments. It's made by The Athletic and free to play.

Sports Connections hints (November 5, 2026)

1One answer from each group

Yellow (easiest): one of its answers is “LOS ANGELES”.
Green (easy): one of its answers is “SPACE COWBOYS”.
Blue (tricky): one of its answers is “SERBIA”.
Purple (trickiest, usually wordplay): one of its answers is “MAURICE”.

2Category hints (no answers)

Yellow (easiest): the theme is “Future olympic hosts”.
Green (easy): the theme is “Triple-a baseball teams”.
Blue (tricky): the theme is “Associated with nikola jokić”.
Purple (trickiest, usually wordplay): the theme is “Nhl head coaches”.

3One full group revealed

Yellow (easiest) — the connection is “Future olympic hosts”, and its four answers are: LOS ANGELES, FRENCH ALPS, BRISBANE, UTAH.

Sports Connections answers — November 5, 2026

★Today's full Sports Connections answers, explained

Yellow (easiest) — the connection is “Future olympic hosts”. The answers: LOS ANGELES, FRENCH ALPS, BRISBANE, UTAH.
Green (easy) — the connection is “Triple-a baseball teams”. The answers: SPACE COWBOYS, TIDES, MUD HENS, CHIHUAHUAS.
Blue (tricky) — the connection is “Associated with nikola jokić”. The answers: SERBIA, NUGGETS, JOKER, MVP.
Purple (trickiest, usually wordplay) — the connection is “Nhl head coaches”. The answers: MAURICE, ST. LOUIS, BRUNETTE, MUSE.

The puzzle, explained

The purple group is all NHL head coaches, but here's the twist—they're not famous names you'd recognize. "Maurice" is Maurice Lamoriello (who coaches the Islanders), "St. Louis" is Craig Berube (who coaches the Blues), "Brunette" is Andrew Brunette (Florida Panthers coach), and "Muse" is David Quinn (who coaches the Ducks—get it, "ducks" sounds like "quacks," and a muse... okay, that one's a stretch, but Quinn is definitely a coach). The real trap was "Nuggets" and "Joker"—those screamed Nikola Jokić to everyone, but the purple group specifically needed the coaching angle, not the player angle. And honestly, "St. Louis" could've easily fooled you into thinking it was just an Olympic host or a place name rather than a coach's team.

Next in today's routine: Soccer Connections → · every game's answers on one page. New puzzle daily at midnight local time — free from The Athletic. Bookmark this page for tomorrow's hints. Or play Sports Connections on the official site.

More of today's puzzles

LinkedIn puzzles

Sports Connections — common questions

How is Connections Sports Edition different from regular Connections?

Same rules — sort sixteen answers into four colour-coded groups — but every category is sports: players, teams, rules, kits, moments. It's made by The Athletic (the NYT's sports newsroom), it's free, and it lives on The Athletic's site rather than the NYT Games app.

What time does Sports Connections reset?

At midnight in your own local timezone, like Wordle — not at midnight Eastern like regular Connections. Wherever you are, the new puzzle arrives when your clock strikes twelve.

What do the colours mean in Sports Connections?

The same difficulty ladder as regular Connections: yellow is the easiest group, then green, then blue, and purple is the trickiest — often wordplay or a sneaky link between the leftover answers.

Previous Sports Connections puzzles

Full Sports Connections archive (185 puzzles) → · How to play Connections: Sports Edition →