SUNDAY'S MUST-SEES

Basketball, 3 p.m. Hawai'i time (9 p.m. ET), ABC; also, "NBA Countdown" at 2:31 p.m. Here's the second game of the best-of-seven series with the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers. And yes, it's probably what ABC had hoped for. Here are teams with star shooters (Paul Pierce, Kobe Bryant) and steep traditions. They've collided in the finals 10 times before, including the glory days of Magic Johnson and Larry Bird. Expect fun.

"When We Left Earth: The NASA Missions" debut, 6-8 p.m. (repeating 10 p.m.-midnight), Discovery Channel. Strong in detail, weak in artistry, this three-week series offers a worthy history lesson. Miss-ing is the dramatic power of prev-ious documentaries like "Failure is Not an Option"; still, this works hard and interviews all the key people. We hear of the early days, when brilliant minds simply had to guess. Would the heat shields work? Could a human survive? New and old ideas were melded briskly.

OF NOTE

"Million Dollar Password," 7 p.m., CBS. Last week's debut was great fun, with Neil Patrick Harris being particularly sharp. Tomorrow, Tony Hawk (who's a skateboard star) faces Rosie O'Donnell (who's not).

"Design Star" (HGTV), 9 p.m. and "Ice Road Truckers" (History Channel) season-openers, 6 p.m. (repeating at 8 p.m. and 10 p.m.) This is a big night for cable. It has these reality shows — tough truckers and artsy designers — plus movies, "Army Wives" and more.

"Backwoods," 6 p.m., Spike. Haylie Duff and Ryan Merriman star in a movie about a company retreat gone bad.

"Army Wives," 7 p.m. (repeating 8 p.m., 9 p.m. and 10 p.m.), Lifetime. This series had some good moments last season, then ended with crises and a bar bombing. Now the second season starts with the aftermath.