For years, you could watch a first-round NBA playoff game on TNT or ESPN and start thinking to yourself, “I thought there were three games tonight.” Or you would turn on TNT or ESPN and think to yourself, “Are the Magic or the Raptors playing?”
That’s when you’d remember that there are some first-round playoff games on NBA TV. You would flip over to that channel and lock in for DJ Augustin and Nikola Vučević trying to steal a game or know that you were about to watch DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry put on a show.
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Those days are over, at least during this current NBA broadcasting administration. We don’t have the NBA TV playoff games or series anymore. Everything has been moved to Amazon Prime Video, NBC/Peacock and ESPN/ABC. Let’s pour out a little from our cup in memoriam of these games and series we used to search for. It’s truly a lost moment in playoff basketball culture.
With that collective moment of silence complete, where are the games going to be? How are the broadcasts going to go? Who will have which moments of the postseason, and will that be the best thing for the NBA fan? Let’s dive into our 2026 NBA Postseason Viewing Guide.
Prime Video
What will it broadcast? Play-In Tournament games will be exclusively on Prime Video (two on Tuesday, two on Wednesday, two on Friday). Help your confused parents find the Play-In by logging into Prime. You’re also going to get about one-third of the games in the first and second rounds on Prime, which will also air one of the conference finals in six of the 11 years of this media-rights deal, but not this year.
What worked with Prime this season? I’ve enjoyed the presentation from Prime all season. The cameras somehow look crisper to me, although maybe it’s just the way the resolution renders in their app. I like the score bug and the stats displays. And the camera angles are almost always great without gimmicks or bad cutaways. The broadcast teams are top-notch, too. Ian Eagle or Kevin Harlan doing the play-by-play is going to be perfect for the postseason. Harlan is the best to do it, in my opinion. Prime Video has a deep roster of color commentators with Stan Van Gundy, Candace Parker, Dwyane Wade, Brent Barry and more. It feels like the streaming service took so much of what TNT was good at and found a way to make it a bit cleaner.
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Prime also has my favorite studio show that continues to get better and better. It should be pretty fun to see how they approach the postseason, although it might be better in the years they’re showing a conference finals series.
Any concerns for Prime? Since it’s through the internet and not over the air, internet connection could end up being an issue. That is technological understanding beyond my comprehension of potential problems that might arise with so many tuning in for the biggest games. Accessibility to these games is also going to be confusing for a lot of people, so Amazon really needs to push that these games are on and available on its platform. I still find that to be lacking, and my algorithm should be set up for this.
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Overall feeling for its first season as a broadcast partner: I had my doubts about it, even with their great team of analysts and announcers, but it has been a seamless transition from the Turner Sports folks to Prime Video.
NBC/Peacock
What will it broadcast? NBC/Peacock will have 28 games in the first and second rounds of the playoffs. This year, the Western Conference finals will air on NBC/Peacock.
What worked with NBC/Peacock this season? I wrote this in December, but NBC just knows how to put sports on your television screen. The network does a 10/10 job with the Olympics and a 10/10 job with the NFL. It’s no surprise that it was great at putting basketball on TV after decades away from the NBA. Even though he dabbled here and there, I was impressed with how easily Mike Tirico was awesome at doing NBA games right away. Noah Eagle has been a rising star, and Michael Grady is also excellent at calling games. I’m also a big fan of Jamal Crawford being the color analyst. His breakdown of the basketball on the court, both from an individual and team level, is superb, and he has great timing. Grant Hill is also really good. Reggie Miller can get on fans’ nerves, and I’ve certainly experienced that. But I have learned to enjoy the fact that he genuinely loves what’s in front of him, and the enthusiasm on TV is a good thing.
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NBC/Peacock also has an excellent studio show with Tracy McGrady, Carmelo Anthony and Vince Carter as the lead analysts. Maria Taylor does a great job keeping that show moving and setting the energy for where they need to be at any given moment. This studio show will do an excellent job in the postseason.
Any concerns for NBC/Peacock? The network has really tried to make this game-analysts-sitting-on-the-bench-during-the-games gimmick work. I’ve tried to buy in, and it has its moments. For the most part, it just isn’t good. Turns out the broadcast works way better when the TV people are sitting next to one another. Maybe the personnel of Austin Rivers or Robbie Hummel is the issue, but it just feels too disconnected, and the negatives seem to outweigh the positives. Also, NBC/Peacock did it for the nostalgia broadcasts, but please let’s just stick to the old score bug from the NBA on NBC days of the ’90s.
Overall feeling for its first season back as a broadcast partner: It’s damn near perfect, but I think some of the leaning in for the nostalgia stuff has been forced. I didn’t need Bob Costas and company invading games. Some of the conversations, especially with the bench analysts, have been awkward and forced. But the game presentation and studio shows are awesome additions to the broadcasting landscape.
ESPN/ABC
What will they broadcast during the postseason? ESPN/ABC will broadcast 18 games in the first and second rounds of the playoffs. This year, ESPN/ABC will have the Eastern Conference finals. And the NBA Finals will always be on ESPN/ABC during this media-rights deal.
What worked with ESPN/ABC this season? The addition of Tim Legler to the lead broadcast team has been tremendous. I’m not sure there is anyone better at discussing the game on any platform. Mike Breen is still arguably the best announcer in sports and adds so much without feeling like he’s trying to be the show. That stuff is really good for the NBA Finals presentation. ESPN has the most professional, well-produced and visually appealing broadcasts, and it should, given how long it’s been doing this. When analysts like Doris Burke or Jay Bilas come in and can be themselves without too many notes (at least that’s how it sounds), it’s a phenomenal on-air product. And while some people may dismiss this part of it, the sideline reporting from Lisa Salters and Jorge Sedano is always top-notch, and you actually get quite a bit from the asides and in-game interviews.
Any concerns for ESPN/ABC? The studio shows are a mess. “Inside the NBA” has found more of its groove since it started being more regularly involved, but it still doesn’t feel like the show so many of us adored. Something is missing with it, and it feels like we’re watching Hakeem Olajuwon on the Raptors or Patrick Ewing on the Magic or Michael Jordan on the Wizards. The network’s other studio show continues to miss the mark, too. It’s not appointment television like the other studio shows in the NBA broadcast world, with forced soundbites instead of interesting conversations. They have the talent to have these good conversations, but they’d rather play music under the person talking and only give them 45 seconds to try to stir up something viral.
Maybe they need more time together, but Richard Jefferson alongside Breen and Legler on the broadcast is a little clunky. Sometimes the chemistry is there, and sometimes it’s pretty off. But this stuff takes time to build, so I’m not going to kill them too much for it. So much of the broadcasts, though, feels overproduced instead of just letting the talent be the talent and letting the game on the court be the product.
Overall feeling for it as a broadcast partner: There’s a lot ESPN could improve upon, and it’s definitely third out of these three platforms. That isn’t just a novelty of the newer platforms shining through either. ESPN was behind Turner Sports by a significant margin when those two shared the playoffs and national games for decades. I think ESPN is capable of putting on a great NBA product, but the network keeps wanting it to be an ESPN product. That doesn’t work in general, let alone for the NBA. However, the finals are always on ABC, and they do typically get that right.