The 2026 NBA Playoffs begin Saturday, Apr. 18, with 16 teams chasing the Larry O’Brien Championship Trophy and fans already looking for nba scores across TV and streaming services. The postseason runs through Friday, June 19 if the championship series goes seven games.
Games will air on, ABC and NBC, while viewers can stream them through DirecTV, Sling and Hulu + Live TV. Postseason games will also be available on Prime Video and Peacock, giving fans multiple ways to follow every round.
DirecTV carries, ABC and NBC and offers a five-day trial, with prices starting at $59.99 for the first month and $94.99 a month after that for the Choice package. Sling’s Orange + Blue plan includes, ESPN2, ESPN3, ABC and NBC for $60.99 a month, and NBA TV is available through its Sports Extra add-on for $11 more.
Hulu + Live TV adds Disney+, Unlimited and access to more than 95 live channels. That matters because the league’s ratings have climbed over the past year since games moved from cable TV with TNT to network broadcast television with NBC, and more viewers have been watching deep into the postseason.
The numbers back that up. The NBA All-Star Game drew nearly 9 million viewers in February, a 15-year high, and last season’s Finals peaked at nearly 20 million viewers in a Game 7 that the league says was a six-year high. The Oklahoma City Thunder beat the Indiana Pacers in that series, a reminder that the race to the title has been drawing a bigger audience just as the playoffs start again.
For fans, the next stretch is simple and busy: the top 16 teams will play for nearly two months, and the clearest way to keep up is to know which service carries the game before tipoff. The bracket starts now, and the biggest crowds may not be in the arenas but on the screens where the scores will land first.
