SGA faces off with Luka, LBJ in NBA triple-header on TSN

Hamilton, Ont.'s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander looks to continue to cement his MVP case on Tuesday night on TSN as the Oklahoma City Thunder host the Los Angeles Lakers. Plus, Eastern Conference heavyweights collide as the Boston Celtics visit the New York Knicks at MSG and the Kevin Durant-less Phoenix Suns try to keep their dim playoff hopes alive against the surging Golden State Warriors.

Boston Celtics (58-20, 2nd in Eastern Conference) vs. New York Knicks (50-28, 3rd in Eastern Conference), 7:30pm ET/4:30pm PT on TSN1/3

With four games remaining on their season, the New York Knicks have a simple goal - win one of those four and the third seed is theirs. But the third seed comes with perils because it means either a date with the Milwaukee Bucks and one of the league's best players in Giannis Antetokounmpo or the upstart Detroit Pistons, a team that has tripled their win total from last season and have proven themselves to be fearless no matter the competition (FWIW, they've also played the Knicks quite well in their three meetings this season). Still, heading into the season, Tom Thibodeau's team wasn't interested in the easiest possible first-round matchup. What it wanted was to prove it could hang with the big boys, that it, too, was a legitimate contender. That's why Leon Rose went all in to acquire Karl-Anthony Towns and Mikal Bridges. But in games that they considered to be measuring sticks, thus far, things haven't gone according to plan. Up against teams who are .500 or better, the Knicks are just 12-19 and have only one of their last seven games against such teams. The defending champs have given the Knicks no shortage of problems this season, with defeats in all three previous matchups - 132-109 in the season opener at TD Garden on Oct. 22, a 131-104 loss at Madison Square Garden on Feb. 8 and, most recently, a 118-105 loss back in Boston on Feb. 23. In fact, against the four teams with better records than the Knicks (the Oklahoma City Thunder, Cleveland Cavaliers, Celtics and Houston Rockets), New York is 1-7 this season. It's hard not to see the Knicks as in a kind of purgatory where they're better than the team that fell to the Indiana Pacers in seven games in the Eastern Conference semis last spring, but still a step behind the legitimate contenders. Tuesday night's game nominally provides am opportunity to better their mark against teams with superior records, but how interested the Celtics are going to be in putting up a fight remains to be seen. Locked in at the No. 2 seed and in the first game of a back-to-back with the team traveling to face the Orlando Magic on Wednesday, there's little incentive for Joe Mazzulla to field a full team. Virtually all of the Celtics' stars head into the game carrying an injury designation. Kristaps Porzingis (illness), Jayson Tatum (ankle) and Jaylen Brown (knee), who is on a minutes restriction, are all listed as questionable. Jrue Holiday (shoulder) and Derrick White (foot) are listed as probable, while Al Horford has been ruled out with a knee injury.

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Los Angeles Lakers (48-30, 3rd in Western Conference) vs. Oklahoma City Thunder (64-14, 1st in Western Conference), 8pm ET/5pm PT on TSN+

Ahead of what will undoubtedly be an emotional game for Luka Doncic on Wednesday night in his return to Dallas, the Los Angeles Lakers will look to beat Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the Oklahoma City Thunder for the second time in three nights with the action shifting to the Paycom Center. With the first seed in the West firmly locked up and not much left to play for, you can, perhaps, forgive Mark Daigneault's team for coming out flat at Crypto.com Arena on Apr. 6. After an 11-game winning streak, the Thunder were finally defeated on Friday night by the second-place Houston Rockets, 125-111. The loss to the Rockets meant that the Thunder would not hit the 70-win mark this season. While it's not exactly a feat that teams set out to accomplish at the start of a season, the 70-win mark is rarefied air with only the 1995-1996 Chicago Bulls (72) and the 2015-2016 Golden State Warriors (73) hitting that milestone. Knowing that was no longer a possibility, the Thunder spotted the Lakers a 10-point lead after the first quarter and never led as the Lakers went on to a 126-99 blowout. The loss marked just the third time all season that the league's third-rated offence had been held under 100 points and the Thunder's top-rated defence looked vulnerable with Doncic, in particular, undaunted by perimeter pressure. The Lakers finished the game shooting .548 from the field and were 22/40 from three. “If you leave someone alone in the gym, they usually don’t shoot that well from three,” Daigneault said after the game. “So there’s a shot-making element. But I also think there’s a focus element that we were lacking in the game." Tuesday's rematch will offer the Thunder a chance to correct the mistakes made on Sunday night and, perhaps, catch the Lakers looking ahead to the Mavericks. With four games left on the season, the Lakers head into the game with a 1.5-game lead over the Nuggets in fourth, but only a two-game lead over all of the Los Angeles Clippers, Warriors, Minnesota Timberwolves and Memphis Grizzlies, who all hold a 46-32 record and occupy seeds No.5 through No. 8.They can't afford to take a night off. LeBron James hopes for more of the same from Sunday night. “We know that they’re very good when it comes to one, getting into the paint, attracting a lot,” James said of the Thunder. “They do a great job of getting [to] the free-throw line. They do a great job of getting offensive rebounds at second-chance points and those are some of the controllables that you control." As for Gilgeous-Alexander, his march towards his first-ever Most Valuable Player award continues as he looks to hold off the Nuggets' Nikola Jokic in the final days of the season. What was notable about the loss to the Lakers is that the Hamilton, Ont. native didn't get to the line once, still finishing with 26 points. With four games remaining on the Thunder's schedule, SGA is averaging a league-leading 32.6 points on .519 shooting, 6.4 assists and 5.0 boards in 34.1 minutes a night.

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Golden State Warriors (46-32, 6th in Western Conference) vs. Phoenix Suns (35-43, 11th in Western Conference), 10pm ET/7pm PT on TSN1/3

A whole host of possibilities remain for the Golden State Warriors as the season winds down. Over the next four games, the Dubs can find themselves hosting a playoff series as the No. 4 seed, as part of the play-ins as the No. 8 seed and everything in between. With the Nuggets only a half-game up on all four of the 46-32 Clippers, Warriors, T-Wolves and Grizzlies, the jockeying for position will go down to the wire in the Western Conference. The Phoenix Suns are highly unlikely to be part of the group of teams playing until Game 82. In fact, a loss to the Dubs on Tuesday night will all but ensure that the Suns won't qualify for the play-ins. The team heads into the game in 11th, trailing the 10th-place Mavericks by 2.5 games. If the Suns are to somehow upset the Warriors, it will be without Kevin Durant. The future Hall of Famer and former Dub is set to miss his fourth straight game with an ankle injury incurred in a Mar. 29 loss to the Rockets. Should the Suns fall on Tuesday night, there is the chance that the 15-time All-Star won't play again in the team's final three games. And if that's the case, he might have played his final game in a Suns uniform. Neither is a guarantee, though. The 37-year-old Washington, DC native has appeared in 62 contests this season. He would need to play in the final three games to hit the 65-game mark to qualify for All-NBA consideration, so there is meaning to these final games. As for next season, Durant has one more year remaining on a four-year, $194.2 million deal. While he was mentioned in trade talk ahead of the trade deadline this past February and the belief is that the Suns are open to moving the 2014 NBA MVP, there remains a distinct possibility that he remains in the desert next season. Though the Dubs head into Tuesday's game coming off of a loss on Sunday night to the Rockets, 106-95, the team has been in imperious form since the February acquisition of Jimmy Butler. With the six-time All-Star in the lineup, the Warriors are 20-6 and are primed for a playoff run. In his 26 games with the team following the trade from the Miami Heat, Butler is averaging 17.2 points on .459 shooting with 5.9 boards and 5.8 assists over 32.5 minutes a night.