It’s October. Besides baseball’s World Series, professional sports is witness to the start of the NBA and NHL seasons, the start of the playoffs in Major League Soccer, the National Women’s Soccer League and the WNBA.
The National Football League and college football are both ongoing. Locally, minor league hockey courtesy of the San Diego Gulls is also on tap to face off prior to Halloween.
It’s a crowded sports scene on what to watch on television … and what to watch in person.
Tip-off
As the WNBA wraps up its championship series between the Las Vegas Aces and Phoenix Mercury, the NBA tipped off its preseason schedule Saturday at the sports arena between the Denver Nuggets and Minnesota Timberwolves.
The NBA has been relegated to exhibition stops since the original San Diego Rockets, founded as an expansion team in 1967, departed town in 1971 after being sold to a new ownership group in Houston.
Can America’s Finest City support the league again? Will the Brooklyn Nets come west to populate the proposed 16,000-seat state-of-the-art arena planned for the Midway District?
The Los Angeles Clippers, once a resident at the current sports arena from 1978-84, have relocated their G-League development team to Oceanside’s Frontwave Arena and rebranded it as the San Diego Clippers to show there is interest in the sport in the region at the professional level.
At present, Seattle and Las Vegas are considered leading candidates to land an expansion team ahead of San Diego with Mexico City, Montreal and Vancouver showing international interest in the league.
A rather robust crowd of 12,096 attended Saturday’s exhibition game won 126-116 by the Timberwolves.
Denver, keyed by 14 points each from Aaron Gordon and Nikola Jokic, paraded 18 players on the court while Minnesota, keyed by Hones Hyland’s 18 points, auditioned 17 players.
Soccer
San Diego FC’s expansion MLS franchise has set a league record for most standings points (60) and wins (18) in an inaugural season after defeating the host Houston Dynamo, 4-2, on Saturday.
Anders Dreyer bagged two goals to increase his season numbers to 17 goals and 18 assists.
The formidable San Diego entry (18 wins, nine losses, six ties) wraps up regular season play Oct. 18 in Portland in a bid to secure the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference playoffs. SDFC is tied with the Vancouver Whitecaps (17-6-9) for the conference lead and are two points ahead of Minnesota United (16-7-10) and four points ahead of the Loa Angeles Football Club (16-7-8).
The Audi 2025 MLS Cup playoffs kick off with wild card matches on Oct. 22.
The San Diego Wave (8-8-7, 31 points) is holding onto the final NWSL playoff berth but is within striking distance of several teams ahead of them in the standings, just one point behind Racing Louisville (32 points), two points behind the Orlando Pride (33 points) and three points behind the Seattle Reign (34 points).
The top eight teams make the playoffs, which are slated to start with quarterfinals Nov. 7-9.
Hockey
The Gulls met the arch-rival Ontario Reign in an exhibition game on Sunday, coming out on the short end of a 3-2 loss in a highly competitive contest.
Jan Mysak led the Gulls with a goal and assist while Sasha Pastujov netted the team’s opening goal and Will Francis posted an assist.
Tomas Suchanek stopped 12 of 14 shots in his first action since the 2023-24 season after being sidelined all last season because of a torn ACL.
The Gulls open the regular season this Friday, Oct. 10, against the Firebirds in Coachella Valley and host the Henderson Silver Knights Oct. 18 to face off their home schedule.
