Daily Sports For Memorial Day Weekend

America has a three-day holiday weekend ahead, and while I assume most people are going to take the opportunity to get outside—I’ve got a couple local amateur baseball games to go to—there’s still a menu of TV action to go along with the festivities. Here’s the Memorial Day weekend rundown on daily sports…

SATURDAY

It seems like forever since the NBA’s Western Conference Finals were in action, and San Antonio-Memphis will play Game 3 tonight (9 PM ET, ESPN). Preceding that, there’s a hockey doubleheader, with NY Rangers-Boston (5:30 PM ET, NBC Sports Network) and Detroit-Chicago (8 PM ET, NBC). Both the Bruins and Red Wings have a chance to close out this series in their respective Game 5s.

Fox Sports shifts its Saturday baseball coverage to prime-time, starting at 7:15 PM ET. Fox picked five games to spread its coverage around with, and for some reason I can’t possibly fathom they chose the Marlins-White Sox and the Astros-A’s. Keep Miami and Houston as far away as possible from TV sets, lest you scare the kids. The more notable games would be Cardinals-Dodgers, Phillies-Nats and Braves-Mets, and I would imagine those are the three that will be seen by most of the country.

MLB Network will shift a game into the void left by Fox in the late afternoon, and it’s a good one, as the Yankees-Rays meet in the middle game of their three-game set.

TheSportsNotebook will have NBA commentary coming up later this morning, as we analyze how each conference finals matchup looks with two games under its belt. Indiana’s win in Miami last night has heightened the interest level in the East finals, and I don’t think anyone’s writing off Memphis, even having dropped the first two in San Antonio.  We’ll also have our weekly look-in at the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, as the drivers get set to run again on Sunday night.

SUNDAY

Auto racing is what Memorial Day Sunday is known for and the Indy 500 starts at 11 AM ET on ABC. Out of respect for the traditional event, the more consequential NASCAR Sprint Cup series race in Charlotte won’t start until 6 PM ET and can be seen on Fox.

The Yankees-Rays are again on your TV set, with a 1:40 PM ET start on TBS—this is the fifth time this week the Yanks have been on national television, between ESPN, MLB Network and TBS. And who says they get overhyped?

It’s then an evening trifecta of baseball, basketball and hockey. ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball has the Braves-Mets starting at 8 PM ET. At the same time over on NBC Sports Network the puck drops for Game 6 of Los Angeles-San Jose, with the Kings trying to clinch on the road. And at 8:30 PM ET on TNT, tune in for Game 3 of Indiana-Miami, as the Pacers come home and try and put LeBron & Co into some serious trouble.

TheSportsNotebook will have Sunday morning NHL analysis. The focal point will depend on outcomes Saturday. We could be previewing a trio of Game 6s, including the one we know we’ll see from San Jose. Or we could be looking ahead to conference finals action, depending on whether Boston can join Pittsburgh to play for the Eastern title.

MONDAY

MLB Network has a day-night doubleheader for Memorial Day itself. The Battle of the Beltway, Baltimore-Washington is the featured game at 1 PM ET, with the Rustbelt War—Detroit & Pittsburgh being a fallback option in some parts of the country. And lest you think we might actually skip the Yankees, their Big Apple battle with the Mets is the main game at 7 PM ET. Some parts of the Northeast will get Phillies-Red Sox instead.

Hockey coverage is completely up in the air right now—there would be Game 6s for Boston-NY Rangers and Chicago-Detroit if necessary, but that’s all we know. We’ll hopefully have updated schedule information for Sunday morning’s NHL analysis.

We do know there will be NBA basketball, with Game 4 of the Spurs-Grizzlies tipping at 9 PM ET on ESPN. And here at TheSportsNotebook there will be Monday morning NBA commentary, as we review the Game 3 results and continue our game-by-game reassessment of each series.

Everyone enjoy the holiday weekend. If you’re hungry for baseball talk, last week’s MLB coverage here at TheSportsNotebook focused on leaders for the All-Star team and individual awards in both the American League and National League.