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Connections: Sports Edition hints for June 5, 2025, puzzle No. 255

Connections: Sports Edition hints for June 5, 2025, puzzle No. 255

New York Times2 days ago

Need help with today's Connections: Sports Edition puzzle? You've come to the right place.
Welcome to Connections: Sports Edition Coach — a spot to gather clues and discuss (and share) scores.
A quick public service announcement before we continue: The bottom of this article includes one answer in each of the four categories. So if you want to solve the board hint-free, we recommend you play before continuing.
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You can access Thursday's game here.
Game No. 255's difficulty: 3 out of 5
Scroll below for one answer in each of the four categories.
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Yellow: PACERS
Green: BURNIE
Blue: HARDEN
Purple: O'NEAL
The next puzzle will be available at midnight in your time zone. Thanks for playing — and share your scores in the comments!
(Illustration: John Bradford / The Athletic)

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You need to do that when you hold for the entire game, sans the final couple of seconds. To start, everything went the Thunder's way. They scored the first seven points. The OKC crowd provided them with a jolt of energy. It looked eerily similar to what they usually do to run up the scoreboard on their opponent. Then the Pacers fought through it. The Thunder held a 29-20 lead after the first quarter. They scored 28 points in the second frame to push their halftime advantage to 57-45. Not bad, but it felt like they left meat on the bone. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had 19 points at the break, but the rest of his squad struggled to show up. Perhaps from a case of the jitters. The Thunder flirted with a near plus-20 shot-attempt advantage over the Pacers. That alone should've been enough to get them up by a larger amount. But Indiana hung around. That's what it's done all playoffs. After the break, it was much of the same. 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