How to watch nba basketball without cable

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Basketball season is back! The 2022-2023 NBA season launched on Tuesday (Oct. 18) with the Golden State Warriors beating the Los Angeles Lakers 123-109, and the Boston Celtics beating the Philadelphia 76ers 126-117.

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For sports fanatics who want to watch their favorite teams face off, there are plenty of affordable streaming options that allow you to watch NBA coverage live and on-demand.

What’s on the NBA scheduled this week? The New York Knicks and Memphis Grizzlies game will air on Wednesday (Oct. 19) at 7:30 p.m. ET on ESPN, followed by the Dallas Mavericks vs. Phoenix Suns at 10:30 p.m. on ESPN.

The Milwaukee Bucks and Philadelphia 76ers game will air Thursday (Oct. 20) at 7:30 p.m. on TNT, ahead of the Lakers vs. L.A. Clippers at 10:00 p.m. ET. On Friday (Oct. 21), the Boston Celtics will take on the Miami Heat at 7:30 p.m. on ESPN and the championship Warriors face the Denver Nuggets at 10:00 p.m. ET.

The NBA season is held from Oct. 18, 2022 until April 10, 2023. See the full schedule of NBA games here.

Read on for details on how to watch games without cable.

Watch the NBA 2022-2023 season with a free trail from DirecTV Stream, YouTube TV, Fubo TV and other platforms that provide live television, and a free trial for at least five days. To make things easier, we’ve collected a short list of some of the more affordable streaming options and what they offer.

For example, Direct TV Stream is $69.99 a month for its cheapest streaming package (75+ channels, unlimited DVR storage, etc. ). Right now, Direct TV Stream’s more expensive packages are discounted $10 for the first five months, which means that you can upgrade to the Choice package (105+ channels, unlimited DVR, regional sports networks included) for just $79.99 a month. This limited deal ends Nov. 6.

Direct TV Stream

$69.99/month after 5-day free trial

Buy Now 1

Thinking about joining NBA League Pass? It’s $14.99 a month after a free trail, but Direct TV Stream and Sling TV subscribers can enjoy a free preview of NBA League Pass until Oct. 24.  

Some of the NBA League Pass games scheduled for Wednesday include the Orlando Magic vs. Detroit Pistons, Washington Wizards vs. Indiana Pacers, and Houston Rockets vs. Atlanta Hawks. You can order NBA League Pass through Sling TV, Direct TV Stream, Fubo TV, and Prime Video.

NBA League Pass (Prime Video)

$14.99/month after free trial

Buy Now 1

Join Fubo TV and pay $69.99 a month for 133 channels, over 100 sporting events, cloud DVR (1,000 hours) and streaming from unlimited screens at home. For Spanish-speaking sports fans, Fubo’s Latino package is discounted to $24.99 a month after a one-week free trial.

Another similarly priced option, Vidgo, is $75.95 a month after a 7-day free trial. Meanwhile, Sling TV’s streaming packages are half off (regularly $35/month) and Hulu + Live TV is $69.99 a month for 75+ channels, plus you’ll get access to ESPN+ and Hulu.

How cord-cutters can watch the NBA season without cable

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Cord-cutters can get their fill of big nationally televised games, but local broadcasts remain on the bench.

By Michael Ansaldo

TechHive Oct 14, 2022 3:00 am PDT

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The NBA season hasn’t even started yet, but the Boston Celtics and the Golden State Warriors, who faced off in last year’s Finals, have already given us plenty of drama. Fortunately, the action will move from the scandal sheet to the score sheet when the 2022-23 season tips off on October 18. If you can’t make it to live games or just don’t feel comfortable returning to the stands yet, you can still catch all the hardwood action even if you don’t have a cable subscription. As in the past, big matchups will be broadcast nationally on ABC, ESPN/ESPN2, TNT, and NBA TV. And you can get most, if not all, of these covered with a single live TV streaming package.

Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for the regional sports networks (RSNs) that air the bulk of the teams’ games. Fox Sports, NBC Sports, YES Network, Marquee Sports Network, and other RSNs have been dropped from YouTube TV, Hulu With Live TV, Sling TV, and fuboTV over carriage-fee disputes. If you’re mainly interested in following your local team through the season, your best bet is to determine which streaming service has an agreement with your team’s regional network and go with that one. Chances are it will also stream some or all the cable networks mentioned above. A few teams can still be found on over-the-air channels—the Chicago Bulls on the windy city’s WGN, for one—but that arrangement is rapidly going the way of the two-handed set shot.

Updated October 14, 2022 to report all your streaming options for the 2022-23 NBA season. 

Over the air

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The good news is you can access ABC for free if you have an over-the-air TV antenna (you’ll find our top antenna picks here) and are within the radius of your local ABC affiliate’s broadcast tower. The bad news is the network is scheduled to air only 18 of this year’s nationally televised games. These, however, include some of the league’s marquee matchups, including three Christmas Day games: Lakers vs. Mavericks, Bucks vs. Celtics, and Grizzlies vs. Warriors.

You can watch the remaining games with some combination of the following services.

The easiest way to catch many of the cable telecasts is with the Sling TV streaming service, but you’ll need to pony up for a monthly subscription. For $35 per month (currently half off for the first month), Sling’s Orange package will get you ESPN/ESPN 2 and TNT. You can also get NBA TV with the Sports Extra add-on for an additional $11. With a TV antenna to catch the ABC broadcasts, you’ll have everything covered.

DirectTV Stream

You can also get ESPN, ESPN2, TNT, and NBA TV with DirectTV Stream. All you need is the basic Entertainment package for $90 per month. You might also be able to get your local team’s games, as DirectTV Stream is the only service to offer a full complement of regional sports networks, including the NBC Sports regional networks, Mid-Atlantic Sports Network, New England Sports Network, YES Network, and Spectrum SportsNet LA. To find out what’s available in your area, enter your ZIP code into DirectTV Stream’s channel lookup. Note that you’ll still need an antenna to watch games on ABC.

Hulu with Live TV and YouTube TV

Both Hulu with Live TV and YouTube TV give you access to ABC, ESPN/ESPN2, and TNT, for a flat fee of $70 a month and $65 a month, respectively. But only YouTube TV offers NBA TV, giving it the edge for hoop heads. With just the one channel package, however, you don’t get the customizability of Sling TV or DirecTV Stream, so keep that in mind if you plan to use your subscription beyond basketball season.

YouTube TV uses a small number of menu sections to make navigation easier.

FuboTV

FuboTV offers ABC and ESPN in its $70-per-month Pro package, but none of its packages include TNT. This package also includes regional networks NBC Sports Bay Area and NBC Sports California, which is great news if you’re a fan of the Kings, Warriors, Lakers, or Clippers. You can add NBA TV by purchasing the Sports Lite add-on for $11 a month.

Fubo has lots of appeal to sports fans, and it includes NBA TV. But your subscription won’t give you access to ABC, TNT, or ESPN.

NBA League Pass

If you’re truly hardcore for the hardwood, you should consider a subscription to NBA League Pass, the league’s official streaming service. For $100 a year or $15 per month, you can watch every live out-of-market game that isn’t being broadcast nationally on one of the four networks we’ve mentioned.

A League Pass subscription allows you to watch every feed (home, away, mobile view, plus additional languages and camera angles) of a game on your TV, computer, tablet, and smartphone. Games originally broadcast on ESPN, TNT, and ABC are available three hours after completion in the video archives. You also get anytime access to a curated selection of “classic” games.

For $130 a year or $20 per month, you can upgrade to NBA League Pass Premium, which enables you to stream a game on two devices at once and watch all games commercial free.

With an NBA League Pass subscription, you can stream live out-of-market games to your TV, computer, or mobile device.

NBA Team Pass

That’s a big investment if you only want to follow your favorite team. NBA Team Pass is a less-expensive alternative. For $90 a year, you get access to all your squad’s local broadcasts for both home and away games.

The rub is that NBA blackout rules still apply. If you live in your team’s “home” market—a Warriors fan residing in the San Francisco Bay Area, for example—you still won’t be able to watch their games even with a Team Pass subscription (this goes for League Pass as well). Your team’s home market, however, isn’t necessarily defined by your town’s city limits.

In the NBA’s own words, the league determines blackout zones “using zip code (if watching via a satellite television provider), a combination of zip code and cable system distribution territory (if watching via a cable television provider), or by the IP address associated with your internet connection or your mobile device’s GPS coordinates.”

That means this isn’t a cord-cutting option for everyone. You can see which teams are not available in your area in the blackout section on this page when you choose your subscription.

NBA streaming is still 50-50 ball

Streaming live NBA games continues to be a mixed bag for cord-cutters. The availability of national broadcasts through streaming services gives you a courtside seat for some of the biggest matchups of the season. But local fanbases who want to follow their team continue to be left on the bench, for the most part. Until streaming options for regional sports networks become more widely available, you might want to dust off your radio.

Cheapest Ways to Fight NBA Basketball (No Cable) 📀

I love NBA basketball. Every year I get very excited at the beginning of September because I know the clue is coming. This year I also had to figure out how I would be watching the Bulls (losing almost every game) with a combination of streaming packages. That's funny. And a little depressing.

Luckily, you can use my research - I've done almost all the work for each streaming package, so you can choose which one works best for you. We're basically best friends, so I don't mind sharing it with you.

Before we get into the details, let's talk about who wears these games on a regular TV. Basically, the NBA is broadcast on five main channels:

• ABC: Finals House. You can't watch many games through the regular season here, but the Finals isn't something you want to miss out on, especially if you're a Cavs or Warriors fan (for the next few years, anyway).
• TNT: NBA on TNT! It's as classic as the game itself. Basically.
• TBS: Again, there aren't many games here, but it's happening so you might want to.
• ESPN: The sports channel actually gets a few NBA games a year, so it's a must. Plus, you'll get all sorts of extra NBA action like highlights and specials.
• NBA TV: This is a channel dedicated only to NBA basketball. Of course you want this.
• Your local station(s) : If you want to watch your local team (e. g. the team from the city you currently live in), many games will likely be broadcast on local stations such as FOX Sports Detroit for the Pistons , or NBC Sports Chicago and WGN-TV for the bulls. You probably might need to Google the TV schedule for your local team to see which channels are airing those games, then look at the stream options for those channels. Not all local affiliates offer live streaming, although luckily you can make any openings with an inexpensive TV antenna.

But even if you choose a streaming package that has all of these channels, you'll still be missing out on a bunch of games - there are 30 different teams each playing 82 games in the regular season alone. That's a lot of games and none of them will be able to get a live stream. Especially if your team, like my bulls, is bad. At least I still have Wolves that almost look like Bulls are blue and white at this stage.

But I digress. If you want all games, NBA League Pass will give you access to every game that is not broadcast nationally or in your region (otherwise they are "shaded" games). So, if a game is available on broadcast TV in your area, it won't be on League.

That's still a ton of games that Liga Pass does have, however more than you get with the channels above. They are simply less high profile or for out-of-state teams.

In addition, Liga Pass only covers the regular season. All post-season games are on TV anyway, so you still won't miss anything if you choose the right streaming package.

So, with all that, let's talk about pricing, starting with Pass Pass.

League prices and streams

Since the League Pass is a must for NBA fans who never want to miss a game, let's start there. Since we've already talked about what the Liga Pass does (and doesn't include), we can just go straight to dollars. Basically, Pass League is divided into three different packages with two plans for each:

• All Teams + Arena ($250/year or $40/month): This gives you access to all 30 NBA teams as well as their arena entertainment during the break and more. There are no commercials or advertisements during breaks in the game, which I think is neat.
• All Teams ($200 per year or $29 per month): This gives you access to all 30 teams - each game, except for the crossed out games mentioned above. You will have to deal with ads during game breaks though, like timeouts and timeouts.
• One command ($120/year or $18/month): If you only want to follow one command, this is your package. Again, keep in mind that you still won't be able to watch your local team in Liga Pass no matter which package you choose, so this is mostly helpful for fans who follow an out-of-state team.

It's quite simple. The pricing structure is pretty steep if you ask me, but I buy it every year no matter what you do. I like the ball.

If you're trying to stream something that's not on this list, I don't know what to tell you. That's pretty much everything there is, and even some things which don't even make sense. The NBA is really going all out.

TV streaming packages for national and local games

So what about those other channels we mentioned earlier? The best way to collect all of these opportunities is through the five major online streams: Sling TV, PlayStation Vue, Hulu TV, DIrecTV Now, and YouTube TV. Each has its own set of pros, cons, pricing structures, and channels offered. You'll also likely want to consider the other channels offered with each package, but that's up to you. We're just talking about basketball here.

Sling TV is probably the most popular streaming service on the internet and it should offer the most of what you want for NBA streaming. Here are the packages for you:

• Sling TV Blue: $25 a month per package gets TNT, TBS, ESPN and ABC. The latter is only available in some markets - you'll have to look up your zip code to make sure you're in one of them).
• Sport Extra: You will need to charge an extra $10 per month to get NBA TV, which I think is worth it.

So, for $35 a month, Sling will get you most of the channels you need. You can also add a five-seat Cloud DVR service if you're busy.

Sling is available on the following streaming devices:

• Player
• Amazon Fire TV
• Android (phone, tablet, TV)
• Chromecast
• iOS (iPhone, iPad, Apple TV)
• WebOS
• Mac
• PC
• Roku
• Xbox One
• Web

Here you can also find our information about Sling.

PlayStation Vue

Sony makes streaming TV known as PlayStation Vue more complete than any of the others on this list, and that feels is more like a traditional cable (if you're into that). It's also comparable to Sling in terms of pricing:

• PlayStation Vue Core Bundle: For $45 a month, you get everything you need to watch NBA basketball (except for the League Pass, of course). These are ABC, TNT, TBS, ESPN and NBA TV.

Of course, you can also choose a larger package if you need other channels for non-basketball content, but that's your call. The Core package is the most affordable package available that covers everything we're looking at here. It's also worth mentioning that Vue comes with a Cloud DVR service baked in at $45/month.

Vue is available on the following streaming platforms:

• PlayStation 3 and 4
• Roku (firmware 7.1 and above)
• Amazon Fire Tablets and TV
• Android (phone, tablet and TV)
• iOS (iPhone, iPad and iOS) Apple TV 4th generation+)
• Chromecast
• Web

To learn more about PlayStation Vue, go here. Alternatively, read our example.

DirecTV now

DirecTV can pretty much give you what you want now, but because it's provided by one of the biggest satellite companies on the planet, it's comparatively more expensive than others. Imagine it. Your choice is here:

• DirecTV now comes with a big package: For $60 a month you get all the NBA basketball channels you need. However, this is a pretty steep price.
• DirecTV now live in small or fair packages: For $35 or $50 respectively, you can go with a smaller package and get everything but NBA TV. This is your call, but I would recommend that it comes with Sling or Vue.

Of course, since DirecTV is owned by AT&T, you can merge and save as well. Do your research to make sure it will be best for you in the long run. Personally, I hate packages with a package, because then I need to make a deal with the company in X years, which is not something I do. But hey, dollars saved saved dollars, so what are you doing.

You can broadcast DirectV Now on the following platforms:

• Amazon Fire TV
• Chromecast
• Roku
• Android (phone and tablet)
• WEB)
• WEB) that it not only has the highest price tag, but also a smaller number of streaming devices. Yes, I'm leaving. If you are still here, you can find more information here.

  YouTube TV

  YouTube TV keeps things as simple as they come with one $35/month all-inclusive package. The thing is, you won't get TNT, TBS, or NBA TV. That's over half of the channels you want to watch in NBA games. Fur.

  It is also only available for streaming on the web or through the iOS and Android apps. It is not yet available on any prefix platforms. Uch.

  Like I said before, YouTube TV is a good idea in theory, but it's pretty terrible in execution. Just save time and don't even look at it. If you need, you can find more information here.

  Hulu TV

  Hulu has been doing its job for a few years now, but it's gotten into the streaming TV game lately. The packages aren't terrible, and it's a pretty decent choice if you're already a Hulu die-hard:

  • Hulu TV: There's only one Hulu streaming package, and it's $40 a month. You will get everything except NBA TV. Pretty simple.

  Hulu TV is available on the following streaming devices:

  • Amazon Fire TV
  • iOS (iPhone, iPad and Apple TV)
  • Android (phones and tablets)
  • Roku
  • Chromecast
  • Xbox One and 360
  • Web
  90 on a fairly decent number of devices. Not bad, especially if you're willing to live without NBA television. You can find out more here.

  ---

  That was a lot, but hopefully this will help my NBA fans get the most out of their season and beyond. I mean, let's be honest here: It's not like the Bulls make the playoffs anyway, so I don't even have to pay attention to another season. At least I can still look at Jimmy and Taj at Wolves. Sigh.

  Here are at least five ways to experience the beautiful (and now the forbidden).

  NBA League Pass

  The most convenient and traditional way is to purchase a subscription on the official website of the NBA.

  Benefit: You get access to all match day matches (both live and recorded), plus abridged versions of matches with original English commentary. This year, League Pass has a nice new feature: the delay between real time and the broadcast will be reduced to a few seconds.

  Disadvantage: it is rather problematic to subscribe in Russia. To do this, you need to have, firstly, a VPN with good speed, and, secondly, a non-Russian card with which you can pay for the subscription.

  “Took the ball”

  When Megogo, which owns the exclusive rights to broadcast the NBA, abandoned Russia, it naturally turned out that the channel's Russian commentators continued to work, only within the framework of the “Took the ball” project.

  This season, the telegram channel "Took the ball" shows 1-2 matches every day: last season, when the project started from scratch, the broadcasts attracted 2-5 thousand viewers with record numbers during the final series.

  Advantage: The main advantage of "Took the ball" over the competition is a team of experienced and well-known commentators. Project boss Dmitry Materansky managed to unite everyone who has experience working at Matcha, Viasat or Megogo: Vladimir Gomelsky, Igor Znamensky, Vladimir Spivak and Andrey Pankrashev.

  Disadvantage: "Took the Ball" is clearly not chasing quantity, but offers those matches that are considered the most interesting, so you can not always see your favorite team here (especially if you are a supporter for some Detroit) . The project does not even cover absolutely all playoff matches, at least that was the case last season.

  You also need to understand that the “Take the ball” commentators are not always perfect either. Young representatives of the project do not always quickly figure out what is happening on the site, experienced ones promote expert opinion (often controversial and annoying to many) right during the games, and all together they sin with monotonous humor (and endless jokes on Sergey Abaev), from which you quickly get tired.

  Despite all the power of production and the best conditions, "Took the Ball", supported by the bookmaker, could not completely get rid of the main problem of import-substituting broadcasts: technical problems periodically occurred during the first season, and even Spivak's irrepressible irony at such moments the situation is not strong brightened up.

  AANBA

  The founder of basketball online broadcasts is the legendary Volodya Korvalol, who started the All About NBA project in 2013.

  “First we streamed on the VK platform, then GoodGame, then VidiTV,” says project manager Anton Kuzmichev. - The peak of those years is 15,000 spectators on Vidi during the 2016 NBA Finals, the same ones where Cleveland made a comeback from 1-3. At that moment, one of the funny episodes is that the servers of the VidiTV company fell, and they “asked” us not to post broadcasts for such volumes. So, in fact, not only the news, but also the broadcast branch of our project, which has been running for 7 years, started.

  AANBA showed 65% of matches last season and plans to aim for 70% of matches in Russian and 10-15 in English next season.

  The AANBA audience ranges from 500-1000 spectators at night matches and 2000 to 5000 at morning matches. The most popular game of last season is the first in a series between Boston and the Nets. It was watched live by 12,000 people

  Advantage : “First, volumes. Secondly, commentators, - explains Anton Kuzmichev. “We have a pretty diverse staff of casters. Each of them carries its own informational agenda. Regarding the work of commentators, we often talk about the moments where they need to improve, because without this the comments would stagnate, but we are not satisfied with this situation. One way or another, almost all the actors see themselves as future professionals, although even now our approach is close to this. Another important episode of our work is the absence of donathunting. Since, in fact, commentators receive money from donations, we regulated them. Several left-wing people left the staff of commentators, who not only abused support, but also spoiled the organics of the broadcasts. This is no longer possible to meet in the expanses of aanba during the last season. This is all the more so."

  Weakness : AANBA has two main problems that are typical for self-grown projects on the Internet.

  The first is the hanging broadcasts, which sometimes slow down at the most interesting place.

  The second - commentators without a professional school. They sometimes forget about what is happening and focus on donations. Many of those who are involved in commenting on matches at AANBA work at games of provincial Russian basketball clubs or amateur matches, but there are no people of the level and fame of Gomelsky, Materansky and Znamensky here.

  Anton Kuzmichev says that they are working on both: “I think that without NBA broadcasts on public TV, the basketball fandom has no future. Any rights cost money. And it is not very clear how you can recoup the night spot on paid subscriptions. If suddenly such a topic is revived in Russia, then we would be happy to fly into it. The idea of ​​"pirates" in the eyes of the public is slightly different from what is happening now. We ourselves used to sin with amateur comments with a share of peppercorns, but current trends have forced us to reconsider our position. In order not to lose the audience, we left something of our former self, the ability to communicate with a chat, for example, and significantly added in the technical aspect, focusing on immersion in the sport.”

  Wild Sport

  The Wild Sport VKontakte group started eight years ago with NBA broadcasts, but gradually mastered more and more other types of basketball. In addition to several matches of the NBA game day, almost the entire Euroleague is shown here (last year - 85%), friendly and official matches of the national teams, several matches of the national championships, with the exception of the VTB League (Spain, Turkey, and this year also France).

  In live mode in the Wild Sport group, the NBA final was watched by 2-3 thousand spectators, the EuroBasket or Euroleague final - by 3-4 thousand spectators. Regular matches gather from 300 to 1000 people.

  In total, the matches, according to the management of the group, get about 10-15 thousand views.

  Advantage: “I think it's the commentators,” says project manager Andrey Levy. - Our studio is quite professional in this regard: many commentators work on television (or have worked on television), they are people with great experience. Plus, we regularly invite such wonderful guests as experts, such as Ivan Lazarev, Mikhail Terekhov, Anton Ponkrashov, Maxim Grigoriev, and other guys. We talk about basketball not only from the point of view of play-by-play, but also from the point of view of tactics, analytics, and some interesting facts.

  There is certainly a future for the NBA basketball fandom without public TV coverage. People have been moving away from television for a long time and do not watch television in the modern sense. We follow the US principle. There is national television, there is local television, but a lot of time people spend on online platforms where they buy subscriptions and enjoy life: TNT and ESPN. This is more convenient than when you turn on the channel and they impose on you the match that you are watching. In Russia, it all develops thanks to ideological people who promote themselves. Will it get more financial support? Not sure. But as for the people who are interested, I think yes. For example, we basically do not work with bookmakers, we believe that if a person wants to support, then he does not need to buy a subscription, he can directly support the commentator and the studio. It seems to me that now it is a good platform to give content. Not only in the form of matches, but also in podcasts, documentaries and articles.”

  In fact, the main advantage of Wild Sport is that most non-NBA basketball is broadcast here.

  Flaw : "I think it's the commentators" could also be the Wild Sport's major flaw. After television broadcasts, the style of commenting on the Internet can be very embarrassing or at least seem unusual - especially when users' opinions and questions are counted right during basketball, the roll call of cities begins or donations are counted. One of the foreign coaches of the VTB League looked at the Wild Sport match of his national team and remained at a loss: “Five facts were mentioned - and all five are wrong.”

  Standard lags in broadcasts are also present here.

  Topbasket

  Since last season, the most popular Youtube channel about basketball in Russian has a special telegram where broadcasts of NBA matches are posted with the original sound track. Usually during the season there appear three or four of the most interesting matches of the game day.

  advantage: English (if you know it) and emphasis on the most interesting. Topbasket focuses not so much on an attractive sign, but on the quality of the spectacle. Therefore, noteworthy games of some “Houston” and “Oklahoma” get here, if they managed to give out a sparkling ending or comeback, go into overtime or put a winning baser.

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