Daily Sports: NBA Finals Resume Tuesday

The NBA Finals come back tonight, with Game 3 of the battle between the Miami Heat and San Antonio Spurs being the lead item on Tuesday’s daily sports docket. The series shifts to San Antonio tonight and will be here for the next three games, as the Finals use a 2-3-2 schedule format that differs from the previous three rounds. Tip time is 9 PM ET on ABC.

Baseball action will focus on the National League wild-card race, as the San Francisco Giants visit the Pittsburgh Pirates (7 PM ET, MLB). If you haven’t followed baseball closely to this point, be aware that it’s the Pirates, not the Giants, who are getting great pitching from all facets of their staff. Frisco is hurting, with Ryan Vogelsong first looking terrible and now being on the disabled list to the end of July. This is in addition to Barry Zito reverting to mediocrity, Matt Cain struggling and Tim Lincecum showing no signs of recapturing his Cy Young form.

The Vince Lombardi-era Green Bay Packers will be a feature on TV tonight in two different spots. ESPN2 airs “Lombardi’s Legacy” at 8 PM ET. Then, one hour later, you can jump over to NFL Network where their feature “America’s Game” focuses on Lombardi’s 1966 team in Green Bay that won the first Super Bowl.

College baseball still has its Super Regionals dragging out, as North Carolina and South Carolina can’t get their decisive game in because of the weather. The Tar Heels are the top-ranked team in the country, and the Gamecocks a recent national champion, back in 2011, and then made it back to the College World Series last year. The two proud programs will take another shot at getting their game in today at noon ET (ESPN2). Winner goes to Omaha for the CWS, which begins on Friday.

TheSportsNotebook’s NHL analysis will have its Stanley Cup Finals preview coming up later today. Yesterday the focus was NBA commentary, and you can get ready for tonight’s Game 3 with a look back at what we learned from Miami’s rout on Sunday night that evened up the series. MLB coverage looked at the Arizona Diamondbacks over the weekend and will have both an American League and National League feature coming up later in the week.