MIAMI (AP) — Anthony Edwards scored 33 points, Naz Reid had 20 of his 29 in the second half and the Minnesota Timberwolves pulled away in the fourth quarter to beat Miami 125-115 on Saturday night and snap the Heat’s four-game winning streak.
Julius Randle finished with 23 points and 10 rebounds for Minnesota, which outscored Miami 19-4 in the opening 4 1/2 minutes of the final quarter to turn a four-point lead into a 109-90 edge. Rudy Gobert added 13 points and 12 rebounds for the Timberwolves.
Norman Powell scored 21 for the Heat, who are 3-5 in their last eight home games. Davion Mitchell and Nikola Jovic added 14 for Miami, while Bam Adebayo and Andrew Wiggins each had 12.
76ERS 130, KNICKS 119
NEW YORK (AP) — Tyrese Maxey scored 36 points, Joel Embiid and VJ Edgecombe each had 26 and Philadelphia beat the New York for their third straight victory.
Paul George added 15 points and Quentin Grimes had 10 for the 76ers, who won at Madison Square Garden for the second time this season. Embiid also grabbed 10 rebounds.
Jalen Brunson scored 31 points for the Knicks, who have lost three straight for the second time this season. Karl-Anthony Towns, who returned after missing one game due to illness, added 23 points and 14 rebounds.
Deuce McBride scored 20 points, OG Anunoby had 19 and Mikal Bridges added 12 for New York.
RAPTORS 134, HAWKS 117
TORONTO (AP) — RJ Barrett scored a season-high 29 points, Brandon Ingram also had 29 and Toronto beat Atlanta in the first of back-to-back meetings between the teams.
Scottie Barnes scored 20 points and Immanuel Quickley had 15 for the Raptors, who have won five straight meetings with the Hawks and three of four games overall. Sandro Mamukelashvili had 13 points, 12 rebounds and a career-high eight assists.
Barrett scored eight points as Toronto, up one through three quarters, opened the fourth with a 16-0 run to take a 123-106 lead with 7:18 remaining. The Raptors are 17-1 this season when taking a lead to the fourth.
Atlanta missed six straight field-goal attempts to begin the final period before Nickeil Alexander-Walker connected for a 3 with 6:49 left.
Alexander-Walker finished with 31 points, Jalen Johnson added 30 and Dyson Daniels had 20 points and 12 assists for the Hawks.
HORNETS 112, BULLS 99
CHICAGO (AP) — Miles Bridges had 26 points and 14 rebounds, helping Charlotte beat Chicago.
Brandon Miller scored 22 points for Charlotte, and Kon Knueppel finished with 18. LaMelo Ball added 17 points and seven assists.
The Hornets had lost three straight and five of seven. They improved to 5-2 on the second day of back-to-back games.
Nikola Vucevic had 28 points, eight assists and seven rebounds for Chicago, which had won two in a row and seven of nine overall. Matas Buzelis scored 17 points.
TRAIL BLAZERS 115, SPURS 110
SAN ANTONIO (AP) — Deni Avdija had 29 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists, Donovan Clingan added a career-high 24 points along with 12 rebounds and Portland beat San Antonio.
Toumani Camara had 20 points and eight rebounds as Portland led for all but 18 seconds in picking up its second straight victyory.
Luke Kornet had 20 points and Julian Champagnie added 20 points and 10 rebounds for San Antonio. The Spurs had won two straight.
MAVERICKS 110, ROCKETS 104
DALLAS (AP) — Anthony Davis had 26 points and 12 rebounds and Max Christie scored 24 points, hitting 4 of 6 3-pointers, as Dallas beat Houston.
The Mavericks snapped a four-game losing streak, which tied their longest of the season. They have won six of their last seven home games, two of those against the Rockets ( 122-109 on Dec. 6 ).
Dallas saw a 17-point lead early in the fourth quarter shrink to 106-101 with 1:07 to play before Christie, fourth in the NBA shooting 45.9% from downtown, drove in for a dunk.
Kevin Durant scored 34 points, playing the entire second half with four fouls, to lead the Rockets, who had a four-game winning streak snapped. Amen Thompson had 20 points and 12 rebounds while Tari Eason had 19 points and 10 rebounds.
WARRIORS 123, JAZZ 114
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Stephen Curry scored 31 points with six 3-pointers and Golden State welcomed back their regulars Saturday to beat Utah.
Curry scored 20 points in the third quarter making six of his seven shots, knocking down a go-ahead 3 with 7:01 left in the period and another the next time down.
Lauri Markkanen shot 9 for 12 in the first half for 21 of his 35 points. Keyonte George had 22 points and nine assists for a Jazz team missing Jusuf Nurkic for a second straight game because of a sprained toe on his left foot. Utah has lost three straight and seven of nine.
CELTICS 146, CLIPPERS 115
INGLEWOOD, Calif. (AP) — Jaylen Brown matched his career high with 50 points and Boston completed a successful West Coast swing with a victory over Los Angeles Clippers.
Brown had 19 points in the third quarter. Derrick White added 29 points and Anfernee Simons had 15 as the Celtics went 4-1 on the trip and 3-1 against Western Conference teams. Boston is 7-1 since Dec. 19.
Brown was 18 of 26 from the floor, while White went 10 of 20. Boston shot 55.2% overall and 47.1% from 3-point range. Brown and White combined to go 11 of 22 from long range.
Kawhi Leonard and John Collins each scored 22 points as the Clippers saw their season-best, six-game winning streak end. Collins made his first eight shots in the game and went 9 of 10 from the floor.
Minnesota Timberwolves guard Bones Hyland (8) holds off Miami Heat forward Simone Fontecchio (0) during the second half of an NBA basketball game, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026, in Miami. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
Secretary of State Marco Rubio suggested Sunday that the U.S. would not take a day-to-day role in governing Venezuela, a turnaround after President Donald Trump announced a day earlier that the U.S. would be running Venezuela following its ouster of leader Nicolás Maduro.
Rubio’s statements seemed designed to temper concerns about whether the assertive American action to achieve regime change might again produce a prolonged foreign intervention or failed attempt at nation-building. They stood in contrast to Trump’s broad but vague claims that the U.S. would at least temporarily “run” the oil-rich nation.
Meanwhile, a tense calm hangs over Venezuela after the U.S. military operation that deposed Maduro, who was brought to New York to face criminal charges.
Maduro and his wife landed late Saturday afternoon at a small airport in New York. The couple face U.S. charges of participating in a narco-terrorism conspiracy.
Here's the latest:
The governments of Spain, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Uruguay said in a statement that U.S. involvement in Venezuela is “an extremely dangerous precedent for peace and regional security and puts the civilian population at risk.”
In a statement released jointly by the governments, they expressed their “concern about any attempt at government control, administration, or external appropriation of natural or strategic resources.”
These actions are “incompatible with international law and threaten the political, economic, and social stability of the region,” they added.
Besides expressing their “deep concern and rejection” of the U.S. operation that ended with the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, they called for dialogue, negotiation, and respect for the will of the Venezuelan people to resolve the situation, “without external interference and in accordance with international law.”
Associated Press video on Sunday shows a banner now on display in Iran’s capital warning the United States and Israel that their soldiers could be killed if they take action in the country.
Trump’s recent comment that the U.S. “will come to their rescue” if Iran kills peaceful protesters has taken on a new meaning after the U.S. capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, a longtime ally of Tehran.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry has condemned the “illegal U.S. attack against Venezuela.” U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has said adversaries of the U.S. should note that “America can project our will anywhere, anytime.”
From California to Missouri and Texas, protestors are planning demonstrations Sunday and through the week against President Donald Trump’s military operation and capture of Maduro, which one protest description called “the illegal, unconstitutional invasion of Venezuela.”
Dozens appear to be organized by chapters of Indivisible, a left-leaning group, and many take umbrage with Trump’s plans to take control of Venezuela’s oil industry and ask American companies to revitalize it.
U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, a Republican from Iowa who serves as Senate president pro tempore, posted on X Saturday that Maduro is a narco-terrorist and his drug trafficking resulted in the deaths of too many Americans. He likened the Trump operation to then-President George Bush’s decision in 1989 to capture Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega following his indictment for drug trafficking.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, a Democrat and one of President Donald Trump’s most outspoken critics, posted that U.S. military action in Venezuela is unconstitutional and is putting troops in harm’s way with no long-term strategy. “The American people deserve a President focused on making their lives more affordable,” Pritzker wrote.
U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, a Democrat from Wisconsin, posted a statement on X calling the strikes illegal and criticizing Trump for taking action without congressional approval. “The President does not have the unilateral authority to invade foreign countries, oust their governments, and seize their resources,” she wrote.
France’s foreign minister says the departure of President Nicolás Maduro “is good news for the Venezuelans” and called for a peaceful and democratic transition of power.
Jean-Noël Barrot said “Maduro was an unscrupulous dictator who confiscated Venezuelans’ freedom and stole their elections.”
“Then, yes, we pointed out that the method used infringes the principles of international law,” Barrot said about the U.S. military operation on France 2 national television.
Chuck Schumer, the Democratic Senate leader, called Maduro “a horrible, horrible person” but added, “You don’t treat lawlessness with other lawlessness. And that’s what’s happened.”
“We have learned through the years that, when America tries to regime change and nation-building in this way, the American people pay the price in both blood and results,” Schumer told ABC’s “This Week.”
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem says President Donald Trump’s conversations with Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez now are ”very matter-of-fact and very clear: You can lead or you can get out of the way, because we’re not going to allow you to continue to subvert American influence and our need to have a free country like Venezuela to work with rather than to have dictators in place who perpetuate crimes and drug trafficking.”
Noem tells “Fox News Sunday” that the United States wants a leader in Venezuela who will be “a partner that understands that we’re going to protect America” when it comes to stopping drug trafficking and “terrorists from coming into our country.”
She says that “we’re looking for a leader that will stand up beside us and embrace those freedoms and liberties for the Venezuelan people but also ensure that they’re not perpetuating crimes around the globe like they’ve had in the past.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio appeared to back off Trump’s assertions that the U.S. was running Venezuela, insisting instead that Washington will use control of the South American country’s oil industry to force policy changes and, “We expect that it’s going to lead to results here.”
“We’re hopeful, hopeful, that it does positive results for the people for Venezuela,” Rubio told ABC’s “This Week.” “But, ultimately, most importantly, in the national interest of the United States.”
Asked about Trump suggesting that Rubio would be among the U.S. officials helping to run Venezuela, Rubio offered no details but said, “I’m obviously very intricately involved in the policy” going forward.
He said of Venezuela’s interim leader: “We don’t believe this regime in place is legitimate” because the country never held free and fair elections.
Venezuela’s capital Caracas was unusually quiet Sunday with few vehicles moving around. Convenience stores, gas stations and other businesses were mostly closed.
The presence of police and members of the military across the city was notable for its smaller size compared with an average day and even more so with the days when people protested against Maduro’s government in previous years.
Meanwhile, soldiers attempted to clear an area of an air base that had been on fire along with at least three passenger buses following Saturday’s U.S. attack.
The Brooklyn jail holding Nicolás Maduro is a facility so troubled that some judges have refused to send people there even as it has housed such famous inmates as music stars R. Kelly and Sean “Diddy” Combs.
Opened in the early 1990s, the Metropolitan Detention Center, or MDC Brooklyn, currently houses about 1,300 inmates.
It’s the routine landing spot for people awaiting trial in federal courts in Manhattan and Brooklyn, holding alleged gangsters and drug traffickers alongside some people accused of white collar crimes.
Maduro is not the first president of a country to be locked up there.
Juan Orlando Hernández, the former president of Honduras, was imprisoned at MDC Brooklyn while he was on trial for trafficking hundreds of tons of cocaine into the U.S. Hernández was pardoned and freed by President Donald Trump in December.
▶ Read more about MDC Brooklyn
Residents look at a damaged apartment complex that neighbors say was hit during U.S. strikes to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, in Catia La Mar, Venezuela, Sunday, Jan. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
A soldier stands atop an armored vehicle driving toward Caracas, Venezuela, Sunday, Jan. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Shoppers line up at a supermarket in Caracas, Venezuela, Sunday, Jan. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)
