"Many of the diehard fans now subscribe to SportsChannel anyway," says Gail Ward, marketing official of Continental Cable, which has 35 local systems scheduled to be blacked out tomorrow night. Some 225,000 of the 950,000 cable households in Greater Boston pay for the Celtics channel, which will carry Celtics-Bucks tonight and tomorrow. WTBS tonight will show Detroit-Atlanta Game 2 at 8:30 and the Warriors-Lakers opener at 11.

Game 3 of the Bucks-Celtics series will be on Channel 56 Friday night at 9 from Milwaukee with regulars Gil Santos and Bob Cousy. WTBS will televise Atlanta-Detroit Game 3 that night.

The bad timing award for last weekend goes to CBS for delaying an interview with Turquoise Erving until the 76ers called time out after a third-period 11-2 Bucks run that put them up by 17 and effectively ended her husband's career. She was as gracious in that crushing instant as her husband had been throughout his career . . . Lest there be any doubt, CBS president Neal Pilson said in a recent speech that the network will invite Erving to become an NBA analyst next season. [JACK CRAIG] ;05/04 NKELLY;05/06,10:16 CRAIG05