Eastern Conference finals and NBA Finals for $30 a month
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Victor Wembanyama led the San Antonio Spurs to a road win against the Oklahoma City Thunder in game 1 of the Western Conference finals.
What will Wemby do for an encore? Victor Wembanyama announced himself in game 1 of the Western Conference finals on Monday with an all-time performance. The third-year, 7-foot-4-inch center had 41 points and 24 rebounds to lead the Spurs to a road win in game 1 against the defending champion and top-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder. Game 2 tips off tonight at 8 p.m. ET (5 p.m. PT) on NBC and Peacock.
Meanwhile, in the East, the Knicks staged an epic comeback last night to take game 1 in their series against the Cavaliers. The Knicks trailed by 22 points midway through the fourth quarter and charged back to win the game in overtime, largely on the back of Jalen Brunson. The Knicks’ leader scored 16 of his game-high 38 points during New York’s furious fourth quarter. The Eastern Conference finals resume Thursday night with game 2 on ESPN.
Keep reading to see the TV schedule for the conference finals and the best ways to watch or stream every game.
How to watch the NBA playoffs
Now that we’ve reached the conference finals, you no longer need to worry about NBA games streaming on Prime Video. Every remaining playoff game will be shown on TV on ESPN/ABC or NBC.
The Knicks-Cavs series will be broadcast on ESPN, except for game 3 this Saturday, which will be shown on ABC. The Thunder-Spurs series will be shown on NBC. You can get these channels with a live TV streaming service. And you can also stream the rest of the NBA playoffs with ESPN Unlimited and Peacock.
Here is the TV schedule for the conference finals. All times ET.
Easter Conference finals
- Game 1: Knicks 115, Cavs 104 (OT)
- Game 2: Thursday, May 21, 8 p.m. on ESPN
- Game 3: Saturday, May 23, 8 p.m. on ABC
- Game 4: Monday, May 25, 8 p.m. on ESPN
- Game 5*: Wednesday, May 27, 8 p.m. on ESPN
- Game 6*: Friday, May 29, 8 p.m. on ESPN
- Game 7*: Sunday, May 31, 8 p.m. on ESPN
Western Conference finals
- Game 1: Spurs 122, Thunder 115 (2x OT)
- Game 2: Wednesday, May 20, 8:30 p.m. on NBC/Peacock
- Game 3: Friday, May 22, 8:30 p.m. on NBC/Peacock
- Game 4: Sunday, May 24, 8 p.m. on NBC/Peacock
- Game 5*: Tuesday, May 26, 8:30 p.m. on NBC/Peacock
- Game 6*: Thursday, May 28, 8:30 p.m. on NBC/Peacock
- Game 7*: Saturday, May 30, 8 p.m. on NBC/Peacock
*If necessary.
Peacock will stream the Western Conference finals. Games on Peacock will also appear on NBC, so you don’t necessarily need Peacock to watch.
You can stream every NBA playoff broadcast with Peacock’s $11-a-month Premium plan. Read our Peacock review.
With ESPN Unlimited, you can watch every NBA playoff game that’s on ESPN or ABC. It will stream the Eastern Conference finals as well as the NBA Finals.
The ESPN Unlimited plan costs $30 a month (or $300 a year) and lets you stream all of ESPN’s linear networks: ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPNews, ESPN Deportes, SEC Network and ACC Network. You also get access to programming on ESPN on ABC, ESPN Plus, ESPN3, SECN Plus and ACCNX. Read our ESPN Unlimited review.
(There’s also a $13-a-month ESPN Select plan, which is basically a rebranding of ESPN Plus. With it, you’ll have access to thousands of live games — think small college conferences, whose games you can’t watch anywhere else — but not the NBA.)
Best live TV streaming service for the NBA Playoffs
Two of the major live TV streaming services — DirecTV and YouTube TV — offer sports-focused skinny bundles with ESPN, ABC and NBC that cost less per month than their full package. These plans put them on par with Sling’s monthly cost. Not every service carries every local network in every area, however, so be sure to check the links below to see which channels are available where you live.
YouTube TV’s sports plans costs $55 a month for the first year (before rising to $65 a month) and includes ABC, ESPN and NBC. Plug in your ZIP code on YouTube TV’s welcome page to see which local networks are available in your area.
Read our YouTube TV review.
Live TV streaming services allow you to cancel anytime and require a solid internet connection. Looking for more information? Check out our live TV streaming services guide and our picks for the best sports streaming services.
