The NBA playoffs: How to stream every moment

It's pretty difficult unless you have a live TV streaming subscription or cable

By Joe Allen Published April 18, 2025

NBA basketball — TJ Dragotta / Unsplash

The NBA playoffs kick off on April 19 with a full day of basketball, and the promise of two months of exciting games. As the best 16 teams in the league battle, those who have been watching all season will offer their predictions and follow some of the league’s most exciting storylines.

Will the Boston Celtics be able to defend their title? Will the historically great Oklahoma City Thunder, which one 68 games during the regular season, make it out of an ultra-competitive Western Conference? And will the tag-team of Luka Doncic and Lebron James be able to go on a run?

Recommended Videos

We’re about to learn the answers to all of those questions, but in order to do that, you need to know how to actually watch the games. Here’s a full rundown on how to watch every series:

How to watch the NBA playoffs

The playoffs are being split across ABC, ESPN, TNT/TruTV and NBA TV, which means that the easiest way to watch them is to have a cable subscription or subscribe to a live TV streaming service like Fubo, YouTube TV, Hulu + Live TV, or Sling. Hulu + Live TV does not have NBA TV, though, which is where only a small portion of games will be shown. Fubo, meanwhile, does not include TNT, which will have a large slice of the playoffs. Using Fubo, therefore, would be a poor choice. You can also watch the TNT/TruTV games through a Max subscription.

What are the matchups for the 2025 NBA playoffs?

Here are what this year’s matchups look like:

Eastern Conference

No. 1 Cleveland Cavaliers vs. winner of Heat/Hawks
No. 2 Boston Celtics vs. No. 7 Orlando Magic
No. 3 New York Knicks vs. No. 6 Detroit Pistons
No. 4 Indiana Pacers vs. No. 5 Milwaukee Bucks

Western Conference

No. 1 Oklahoma City Thunder vs. winner of Mavs/Grizzlies
No. 2 Houston Rockets vs. No. 7 Golden State Warriors
No. 3 Los Angeles Lakers vs. No. 6 Minnesota Timberwolves
No. 4 Denver Nuggets vs. No. 5 Los Angeles Clippers

Contributor

Joe Allen is a freelance culture writer based in upstate New York. His work has been published in The Washington Post, The…

Culture

How Breaking Bad transformed the TV landscape for good

Almost two decades after its premiere, Vince Gilligan's crime drama towers over all others

Bryan Cranston as Walter White in Breaking Bad season 5

I watched Breaking Bad for the first time in January 2021. It might sound weird to remember the exact month you started watching a show, but I think it means that Vince Gilligan's master creation is just that memorable. This was about eight years after the show completed its original run on AMC. After hearing its greatness regurgitated by every media outlet and superfan ad nauseam for a decade, it's safe to say there was a mountain of expectations and a certain amount of respect I gave the series right from the jump.

Everything I had been told about Breaking Bad still didn't paint the complete picture of the viewing experience I fell in love with. Watching Walter White transform from your regular, superordinary chemistry teacher into the vile and egotistical mess he finishes as in season 5 is TV's ultimate roller coaster. Just as Walter tells his wife in the series finale when asked why he indulged in his Heisenberg alter ego, the series' 62 episodes made me feel alive.

Culture

Ranking the Yellowjackets characters by how extreme they are

Showtime's series is full of crazy characters. Here's how they stack up

Lottie talks to the group in 1996

Yellowjackets is a rare show in today's TV landscape. Many series have tried to revert to a more positive outlook on life, especially as so much darkness pervades our society. This survival series harkens back to the age of the antihero, though. The girls who live in the forest after their plane crashes on the way to a national soccer tournament have a deep torment tucked away inside their souls. Trauma and insane circumstances often provide the push these ladies need to go off the deep end, both in the timeline showing their teen years and the one in the present day as middle-aged women.

The third season of Yellowjackets has peeled back even more layers on the characters. As the season rounds the corner and gets closer to the finish line, it feels fitting to rank the characters by how extreme they are. From murder to blackmail and even self-sabotage, these are the actions of truly unwell people.
7. Kodiak

Culture

May’s top picks: What to stream on Apple TV+

Apple TV+ has an impressive library that includes great movies and shows

Austin Butler in Masters of the Air.

When computer company Apple announced that it was getting into the streaming TV game, there were plenty of people who were skeptical about the company's ability to pull it off. Why would the tech giant, which is most known for the Macintosh and the iPhone, have any credibility in making television shows? It doesn't seem the two ideas would mesh in any meaningful way, but in the years since Apple TV Plus launched, the company has come up with some pretty impressive original shows, and it picked up a Best Picture Oscar on top of that.
What's even more impressive is that these Apple TV+ shows and movies run the gamut from comedy to drama, and they are all set in wildly different and imaginative places. Any loyal Apple customer, and I am definitely one, will tell you that they buy their stuff because it's simply better than the alternative. As it turns out, the same thing is true for the streaming service.
If you're looking for more great stuff to stream, you should also check out our lists of the best shows on Netflix, the best shows on Hulu, and the best shows on Disney+.

Masters of the Air (2024)