Good morning. The Aces’ season is on the line tonight at Michelob ULTRA Arena at 6:30 on NBCSN. The Golden Knights came back from 3-0 down to beat Toronto in a shootout last night, on a night when T-Mobile Arena didn’t sell out for a regular-season game for the first time in the franchise’s 10 years. Dieter Ruehle is going back to the Lakers’ organ, and Luka Dončić looks ready for the regular season. The Ducks are in Winnipeg at 5, and the Dodgers are waiting on the NLCS against Milwaukee. Let’s get into it.
🚨 HEADLINES
🏀 No tomorrow. The Aces need the first 0-2 comeback in WNBA playoff history, starting tonight — Arion Armeniakos in Las Vegas.
🏒 Down 3-0, won in a shootout. Eichel scored on a penalty shot and Connelly won it in the fifth round, 4-3 over Toronto — Steve Carp at T-Mobile Arena.
🎹 Back on the keys. Dieter Ruehle, the organist for five Lakers titles, returns to Crypto.com Arena — Arash Markazi in Los Angeles.
🏀 Midseason form. Dončić scored 23 in 25 minutes as the Lakers beat Sacramento 114-110 — Carlos Yakimowich at Crypto.com Arena.
⚾ Ten strikeouts. Yamamoto set a postseason career high in the Dodgers’ Game 3 win in Atlanta — John E. Gibson in Tokyo.
🏈 Ahead of schedule. The 3-1 Raiders lead the NFL in takeaways but rank last in yards per carry — Derek Hegna in Las Vegas.
See what else is trending at The Sporting Tribune.
📋 SCOREBOARD — THURSDAY
🏒 NHL: Golden Knights 4, Maple Leafs 3 (SO)
🏀 NBA (preseason): Lakers 114, Kings 110
🏀 NEVER BEEN DONE
The Aces are defending champions. They have A’ja Wilson, who scored 38 and 36 in two of the three games against Indiana. They have Jackie Young and Chelsea Gray, who played all 40 minutes of the elimination game against the Fever.
They also have a 0-2 deficit that no WNBA team has ever overcome. Arion Armeniakos calls it “literally unprecedented.”
Golden State won Game 1 71-60. In Game 2 in San Francisco, the Aces fell behind by 17, were “abysmal” in the first half according to Becky Hammon, won the fourth quarter 26-17 and still lost 83-81 on Veronica Burton’s late three. The Valkyries outrebounded them again in Game 2.
“We all have to box out,” Kalani Brown said. She also said the 50/50 balls are what decide it.
Game 3 is tonight at 6:30 on NBCSN at Michelob ULTRA Arena, and Game 4 is also in Las Vegas. Win both, and the series goes back to San Francisco for a Game 5 next week. Lose tonight, and the Aces’ title defense ends at home.
This team has come through before. It needed the big three to win a Game 3 at home against Indiana last week, and they did. Tonight it needs them again, plus the rebounds that weren’t there in San Francisco.
GO DEEPER
› Arion Armeniakos: The Aces are on the ropes; need a historic turnaround to keep title defense alive (The Sporting Tribune)
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🎹 THE SOUND OF L.A. WINNING
If you’ve been at a championship in Los Angeles in the last 25 years, you’ve probably heard Dieter Ruehle play.
He was the Lakers’ organist for five championships and seven Finals appearances from 2000 to 2010. He played for the Kings’ Stanley Cups in 2012 and 2014. Since he joined the Dodgers full-time in 2016, they’ve won three World Series. This year he was the organist at the Winter Olympics in Milan, where the U.S. men won hockey gold.
Now he’s back with the Lakers. He left about a decade ago, shortly after Kobe Bryant’s final game in 2016, ending a 16-year run. He returns as the Lakers’ organist and musical director and will keep his jobs with the Dodgers and Kings.
The man who brought him back gave him his first job. In 1984, Lon Rosen, now the Lakers’ president of business operations, hired a 15-year-old Ruehle to play for the LA Lazers indoor soccer team.
“It’s not just background music,” Rosen said.
GO DEEPER
› Arash Markazi: Dieter Ruehle returning to Lakers as organist and musical director (The Sporting Tribune)
🏒 A RALLY, AND EMPTY SEATS
Toronto scored three goals in the first period at T-Mobile Arena: Jack Roslovic, Easton Cowan and Nick Paul. Steve Carp writes that the Golden Knights came all the way back. Mark Stone scored in the first. Howden got his first goal of the season, set up by Mitch Marner and William Karlsson. Jack Eichel tied it 3-3 on a penalty shot in the second.
Adin Hill was perfect in overtime. In the shootout, he stopped Auston Matthews, William Nylander, Gavin McKenna and John Tavares, and Trevor Connelly scored in the fifth round for a 4-3 win. “I liked that we picked each other up,” Ryan Craig said.
There was one number the Knights won’t like. The crowd of 15,977 was the first regular-season home game in franchise history that didn’t sell out, not counting the 2020-21 pandemic season. Capacity is 17,367. It’s a small gap, but in a franchise whose 10th-anniversary story is about its bond with the city, it’s worth watching. Victor Olofsson, the team leader with four goals, is out week-to-week with a lower-body injury.
GO DEEPER
› Steve Carp: Knights find way to rally for 4-3 shootout win over Leafs (The Sporting Tribune)
🏟️ TWO GAMES, ONE FRIDAY
Valkyries at Aces, semifinal Game 3, at 6:30 on NBCSN. Elimination game.
Ducks at Jets at 5 on Prime Video, the start of a two-game Canadian trip, after Edmonton scored five in the second period against them Wednesday. They play at Calgary on Saturday.
Saturday: USC at Penn State in the White Out. Sunday: The Raiders at New England. Dodgers: NLCS vs. Milwaukee.
📌 AROUND THE MARKETS
Luka’s ready. Carlos Yakimowich has Dončić scoring 23 in 25 minutes in the Lakers’ 114-110 win over Sacramento. The concern: 20 offensive rebounds allowed and 24 turnovers. “We also didn’t have a low man all night,” JJ Redick said.
Yamamoto’s Game 3. John E. Gibson looks back at Yamamoto’s seven innings and 10 strikeouts, a postseason career high, in Atlanta on Tuesday, including a bases-loaded strikeout of Ronald Acuña Jr. in the fifth. The Dodgers hit two home runs in a three-run fourth and took a 2-1 series lead. They won the series the next night.
Progress report. Derek Hegna has the 3-1 Raiders eighth in scoring at 28.8 points a game and first in takeaways, but last in the league at 3.1 yards per carry. Rookie Mike Washington is averaging five a carry. “You get what you emphasize,” Rob Leonard said earlier this season, and the run game is the next thing to fix.
GO DEEPER
› Carlos Yakimowich: Dončić in midseason form against Kings as connectivity grows (The Sporting Tribune)
› TST Images: Lakers defeat Kings, 114-110, at Crypto.com Arena (The Sporting Tribune)
› John E. Gibson: Yamamoto throws down strikingly clutch playoff performance (The Sporting Tribune)
› Fredo Cervantes: Dodgers beat Braves, advance to third straight NLCS and 8th in 11 years (The Sporting Tribune)
› Derek Hegna: Progress is name of the game when it comes to the Raiders this season (The Sporting Tribune)
📺 WATCHLIST — FRIDAY, OCTOBER 9
🏒 NHL: Ducks at Jets — Canada Life Centre — 5:00 p.m. — Prime Video
🏀 WNBA Semifinals, Game 3: Valkyries at Aces — Michelob ULTRA Arena — 6:30 p.m. — NBCSN
🎟️ GOING TO A GAME?
Get-in prices across Southern California, Las Vegas and Hawaii — brought to you by TickPick, the no-hidden-fee ticket marketplace.
🏀 Valkyries at Aces, Game 3 — Michelob ULTRA Arena — $40
🏒 Flames at Ducks — Honda Center (Tuesday) — $30
🌴 TST TRIVIA
Dieter Ruehle got his first professional job in 1984, at 15. Which L.A. team hired him?
Answer at the bottom.
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Trivia answer: The LA Lazers indoor soccer team, hired by Lon Rosen.
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