ABC earned a 3.9 overnight rating last night for "NBA Saturday Primetime," which featured the Warriors beating the Thunder 121-118 in OT on a last-second 3-pointer from Warriors G Stephen Curry. That makes it the highest-rated, non-Christmas NBA regular-season game across all networks since '13. Last night's game peaked at a 5.6 rating between 11:15-11:30pm ET. The game drew a 14.9 local rating in the S.F.-Oakland-San Jose market, making it the highest-rated regular-season game (non-Christmas) ever on ABC or ESPN. In Oklahoma City, the game drew a 14.6 local rating, making it the highest-rated regular-season game on ABC or ESPN since '14 (ESPN).

Curry made 12 3-pointers on the night, breaking his own NBA mark from last year with 288 made for the season. ESPN’s Pablo Torre said of Curry, “He is a medieval torture rack. He is stretching you in ways we have never seen and it is brutal” (“Sports Reporters,” ESPN, 2/28). ABC’s Dan Harris said, “He needs to start shooting from the other team's net" (“Good Morning America,” ABC, 2/28).

Temperatures were near 65 degrees at faceoff for yesterday's Red Wings-Avalanche NHL Stadium Series game, making Coors Field the "all-time warmest venue" to host an NHL outdoor game. The game "drew a Colorado hockey record crowd of 50,095." The ice "held up just fine" despite the temperatures. Avalanche C Nathan MacKinnon: "The NHL did a great job; 50,000 people was really cool" (DENVER POST, 2/28). The Stadium Series Alumni Game on Friday "lived up to the hype" before an "excited crowd of 43,319." Both teams were "excited to renew acquaintances in what was one of the more bitter and heated match-ups for a decade" (DETROIT NEWS, 2/27).

NBC's Mike Emrick said the game was "made magic by those great old battles of the past but also intensified" by the Western Conference standings ("Red Wings-Avalanche,” NBC, 2/27). The DENVER POST's Mike Chambers writes Colorado over the past 20 years has "become one of the country's best hockey markets." Hockey, at all levels, "spread like a high-country avalanche when the up-and-coming Quebec Nordiques relocated to Denver" in '95 and, "soon after, won two Stanley Cups" (DENVER POST, 2/28).

​Newly elected FIFA President Gianni Infantino today in his first official act in the role "opened FIFA's new museum" in Zurich, Switzerland. Infantino said, "This is the place where football will be lived and breathed. ... It's become a great museum with attention to the worldwide development of football." Meanwhile, Infantino "distanced himself" from former president Sepp Blatter. Infantino: "Sepp Blatter characterised one era at FIFA. I hope that I will characterize a different era at FIFA" (REUTERS, 2/28).

Rockets C Dwight Howard "has fired" his agent, Dan Fegan of Relativity Sports. Howard is "expected to opt out of his current contract and pursue a maximum-salary contract this summer." It "remains unclear who Howard will choose as his next agent." Fegan, who "was recently fired" by Clippers C DeAndre Jordan and Wizards G John Wall, "is widely known in NBA circles as one of the most disruptive forces in the agent ranks" (USATODAY.com, 2/26).

NFL agent Drew Rosenhaus’ $516,415 NFLPA arbitration award against his ex-client, Redskins WR DeSean Jackson, was vacated by a federal judge late Friday afternoon. U.S. District Judge Michael Fitzgerald in a written decision vacated the award on the grounds that Jackson should have been told that the NFLPA arbitrator, Roger Kaplan, had worked for and was paid by Rosenhaus, in a separate arbitration, involving a dispute with one of his former employees.

Jackson was required to have his dispute with Rosenhaus heard by an NFLPA arbitrator under union regulations, but he objected when he found out that Kaplan was being paid a fee of $140,000 to work for Rosenhaus in his dispute with former Rosenhaus Sports employee Danny Martoe.

For more, see tomorrow’s issue of THE DAILY.

NASCAR today had its "smallest Sprint Cup field in nearly 20 years" when the Folds of Honor 500 began at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Only 39 cars started the race in NASCAR's "new 40-car maximum field, cut from 43." The most recent race without a full field came in June '14, when 42 cars "started the race at Kentucky." The last time a Sprint Cup race started with fewer than 40 cars was September '96, when an event at North Wilkesboro Speedway "was limited to 37 cars" (ESPN.com, 2/27).

The Univ. of Illinois this week will begin preparation for the "final phase" of its $169.5M State Farm Center renovation. The plan is to have the project complete "in time for tipoff" of the '16-17 basketball season. Construction will "begin in earnest Tuesday, with an estimated completion of late October." UI Senior Associate AD Warren Hood said that the renovations will "add several high-end features to the arena." Among those features are a new scoreboard, video boards, LED lighting throughout the building, locker rooms and a new training room (Champaign NEWS-GAZETTE, 2/25).

Sources said that the NFL and the NFLPA have agreed to increase the salary cap for '16 to "slightly above" $155M. Last season's salary cap was $143.28M, making this the "third consecutive season that the cap has increased" by at least $10M (ESPN.com, 2/26). The $12M rise was "due mostly" to the league's $450M expanded "Thursday Night Football" package that will be split by NBC and CBS (BOSTON GLOBE, 2/28). 

The State of Hawaii is "looking to replace the synthetic turf at Aloha Stadium at a cost" of up to $1.5M. The turf has "come under tough recent criticism" after the U.S. Women's National Team "decided to not play a friendly match against Trinidad and Tobago." The team claimed the field "was in poor condition." The work "includes the removal and replacement of the synthetic turf and infill and underlying drainage mat" (BIZJOURNALS.com, 2/26).

A source said that the St. Bonaventure Univ.'s men's basketball team "will be switching" from Nike to adidas for the '16-17 season (THEBONABLOG.com, 2/26). 

Iranian businessman Farhad Moshiri "has bought" a 49.9% stake in EPL club Everton, pending league approval. This would end Everton's "decade-long search for new investment" (BBC.com, 2/27).

Top-ranked Villanova drew 19,043 fans out to BMO Harris Bradley Center yesterday for its road game against Marquette. It was "the largest crowd" to see Villanova play this season (PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER, 2/28).

Former NFL scout C.O. Brocato, who died last September at 85, was honored at the NFL Combine this week when "CO" was "painted on the Lucas Oil Stadium field" (TENNESSEAN.com, 2/27).

"You're giving up some revenue, but it's one of the worst things we do" – Packers President & CEO Mark Murphy, on reducing the preseason to three games (ESPN.com, 2/26). 

"It's one of those things where hopefully guys here can go back to friends and family and say, If you do have something going on, here's a way you can go handle it" – Mets RF Curtis Granderson, after attending an MLB-facilitated domestic violence seminar with team members (AP, 2/27). 

“I don't think so. I think the reaction here is heavy heavy skepticism because Mr. Infantino is not only a Swedish administrator, he is also the crony of Michel Platini. ... This is a problem structurally” – ESPN's Pablo Torre, on if new FIFA President Gianni Infantino will be able to change the culture within the organization ("The Sports Reporters," ESPN, 2/28). 

The BOSTON HERALD's Steve Buckley wrote the more Red Sox President of Baseball Operations Dave Dombrowski talks, the "more apparent it becomes that even some of his mentors from back in the day were more forward-looking and open-minded than one might think." Dombrowski said, "From an analytical perspective, we haven't changed any of the information that has been supplied." The BOSTON GLOBE's Dan Shaughnessy writes Dombrowski "is nothing like his predecessors." Dombrowski is "ubiquitous," and there is "no attempt to guard the baseball business as if he were protecting national security."

Nick DePaula of YAHOO SPORTS' THE VERTICAL wrote Warriors G Klay Thompson is "learning to expand his visibility and personal brand" with several endorsement deals in the last two years, but "none are bigger" than his deal with Chinese shoe company Anta. Thompson's deal, which he signed in '14, "included his own signature shoe available in China, input on his product, massive billboards and store banners, and an annual appearance tour in China." 

Elsewhere:

• Would the Chargers' combined stadium-convention center work?
• The Detroit Free Press runs a Q&A with NFL player agent Leigh Steinberg.
• Canisius College students leverage ties to ESPN broadcasts.
• A profile of long-serving Assembly Hall PA announcer Chuck Crabb.
• Why it is "only the beginning for women working in the NFL."
• After a paralyzing hockey injury, Jack Jablonski forges a new life.

First day working @BostonGlobe, 43 years ago today. Coffee runs, tearing wires, filling glue pots, editing race results, lovin' the ink.

— Kevin Paul Dupont (@GlobeKPD) February 28, 2016

Crisis averted@ AMS media center.90 yr old "security" won't let Miss America in drivers mtg for scheduled appearance. Overruled. Tiara wins.

— Jim Noble (@Noble_Jim) February 28, 2016

Attendance for #CrawfordLundy at @TheGarden Theater is a sold-out 5,092. #boxing

— Dan Rafael (@danrafaelespn) February 28, 2016

Texas ticket update for No. 2 Kansas on Monday. About 900 left for general public. And 1,800 held for student draw. Doors open 6:30.

— Brian Davis (@BDavisAAS) February 28, 2016

FIFA selects least worst option - tough to believe that genuine reform is on the horizon

— Bill Sutton (@Sutton_ImpactU) February 28, 2016

Our Chairman just can't escape the fans thanking him for @amsupdates & how he's helped build the sport @NASCAR pic.twitter.com/MpwW4WjySk

— Donald Hawk (@HawkSMI) February 28, 2016