The Week In Tv Sports

DON'T MISS

Sunday 5/30
Indianapolis 500 Coca-Cola 600
?ABC II AM; TBS 6:05 PM
Some will recall Mad About You as a vapid sitcom, others will recall it as a vapid Belinda Carlisle song, and a lucky few will remember neither. Similarly, some fans think of Hoosier Tony Stewart, who last year set an Indy Racing League record for most laps led (812) in a season, as an Indy car racer. Others, noting his four Top 10 finishes in this, his rookie season in NASCAR, consider him a stock car racer. Today, Stewart (right, in the lead earlier this month at the California 500), who's mad about both circuits, attempts to become the first driver to complete in one day all 1,100 miles of these two events, sandwiched around a 428-mile flight from Indianapolis to Concord, N.C.

HIGHLIGHTS

Saturday 5/29
NHL Eastern Conference Finals
? ESPN 7:30 PM
Asked once by a customs official at the Canada-U.S. border if he had anything to declare, comedian Steven Wright deadpanned, "War." It's no joke now, with Buffalo and Toronto, just 60 miles apart, meeting for the first time in the postseason. (Game 4 is tonight.) The matchup boasts the two hottest goaltenders in the NHL, the Sabres' Dominik Hasek and the Maple Leafs' Curtis Joseph. Their presence in the nets suggests a series whose characters have few goals—hockey's answer to It's Like, You Know.

Sunday 5/30
Prefontaine Classic
?CBS 1 PM
Kennedy-Johnson was a winning ticket in 1960 in a race of another nature. Today, in a meet at historic Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore., Americans Bob Kennedy and Michael Johnson will toe the starting line, if not the party line. Earlier this month Kennedy made the the fastest 10K debut (27:38) by an American since Steve Prefontaine (after whom this meet is named) ran a 27:43.6 in 1974. At the Pre, Kennedy will return to his specialty, the 5,000 meters, in which he holds the U.S. record. Olympic champion Johnson, owner of the year's fastest 400-meters time (44.51), will be pitted against five of the world's top 10 at that distance.

Monday 5/31
NBA Conference Finals
? NBC 5:30 PM
You can spot the symptoms: logy, baggy-eyed coworkers doing a pick-and-roll to the water cooler. They're East Coast-residing fans of Western Conference teams, Livin' la Vida Nocturna by staying up past midnight to watch the thrilling NBA endings. Thankfully, the late-afternoon start for today's game in the West final (teams not determined as SI went to press), as well as the mid-evening tip-offs for conference finals games later in the week (Tuesday, TNT, 8:30 p.m. and Friday, NBC, 9 p.m.), augur a productive June in workplaces from Pittsfield to Pittsburgh.

Friday 6/4
Braves at Red Sox
?TBS 7 PM
Yes, Atlanta's franchise began in Boston, but a more contemporary link between the cities is Georgia Tech, alma mater of Red Sox stars Nomar Garciaparra and Jason Varitek. Shortstop Garciaparra had a two-grand-slam, 10-RBI game this season. Catcher Varitek belted two homers in last week's 6-0 win over the Yankees that catapulted Boston into first place in the American League East. Yellow Jackets with Red Sox? Ronald McDonald is no longer the only one who finds that ensemble fashionable.

ALL TIMES EASTERN. SCHEDULES ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE. SOURCE: NIELSEN SPORTS MARKETING SERVICE.