Editor's note: until our picks model ships, only the marquee carries a Vegas line. The rest of this list is what's worth watching, not how to bet it. Full slate with every channel and tip time: watch.uristocrat.com.
Sunday brings two conference finals on the same TV grid. The defending champion Thunder go to San Antonio with a chance to choke off the Spurs at home, and the Avalanche head to Vegas needing a win or their season ends Tuesday. Around it: a daytime national WNBA game on NBC, six MLB matinees, and the Rangers in Anaheim under the Peacock lights.
Marquee: Thunder at Spurs, Western Conference Finals Game 4 (8:00 PM ET, NBC)
Thunder lead 2-1. Game 3 was the kind of game OKC's bench wins. Lu Dort and the second unit broke open a tied third quarter, and the 123-108 final flattered the Spurs more than the game itself did. Wemby went for 26, Shai went for 26, and the series is now what most people thought it would be. The Thunder are one road win from a 3-1 stranglehold that no team has ever come back from in a conference finals. The pressure is on San Antonio at home. If the Spurs lose this one, the parade is already being drawn up in Oklahoma City.
Vegas line: Spurs -2.5, total 218.5, moneyline Spurs -138 / Thunder +118.
Also tonight
- Avalanche at Golden Knights, Western Conference Final Game 3 (8:00 PM ET, ESPN). Vegas leads 2-0. Colorado has not solved Adin Hill twice in Denver and now the series moves to T-Mobile Arena, where the Knights are at their loudest. The Avs need this one or they are cooked. Same window as Spurs-Thunder, so pick your couch.
- Wings at Liberty (3:30 PM ET, NBC). Paige Bueckers and Azzi Fudd in Brooklyn against a Liberty team still waiting on Sabrina Ionescu and Satou Sabally to come back from injury. Dallas has not figured out how to guard anyone yet. New York will probably win, but the Bueckers and Fudd show is the reason to tune in for the early window.
- Mystics at Storm (6:00 PM ET). Quiet game, but Seattle keeps finding a way to sit near the top of the West and Washington keeps being more competitive than the roster suggests. Late-window WNBA before the playoff games tip.
- Rangers at Angels (7:20 PM ET, Peacock). The default MLB primetime game. Two AL West teams trying to stay relevant ahead of the trade deadline. Worth it if you want baseball in the background of the basketball.
- White Sox at Giants (4:05 PM ET, NBC Sports Bay Area). San Francisco's home Sunday afternoon. The White Sox are bad in a way that will be useful in twenty years, when historians look up which teams Bay Area kids first saw lose at Oracle.
- Nationals at Braves (4:10 PM ET, BravesVision). Atlanta needs to start stacking series wins. Washington just wants to keep developing the young arms in front of a national crowd that, this afternoon, will not be paying any attention.
The thread tonight is leverage. The Spurs have one shot to keep this from becoming a sweep watch, and the Avalanche have one shot to keep their season alive past Tuesday. Two 8 PM ET tip-offs, on NBC and ESPN. The MLB slate is filler around the main event. If you are picking one screen, make it the NBC one.
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