The Boston Celtics take their six-game winning streak into TD Garden for a matchup against the Milwaukee Bucks tonight. With Boston running away with the East, and Milwaukee starting to click under Doc Rivers, this one could easily be a conference finals preview.
The game is about to start, at 7:30 p.m. ET, and will be televised nationally on ESPN. But if you don’t have cable, there are also plenty of ways you can watch a live stream for free or cheap.
Of the five live-TV streaming services that include ESPN, Sling TV is by far the cheapest long-term option. The “Sling Orange” channel package–which includes ESPN and 31 other total channels–costs just $15 for your first month and then $40 per month after that. Every other streaming service is north of $70 per month.
So, while there’s no free trial, this is an excellent and inexpensive way to watch tonight’s Bucks vs Celtics game–and a whole lot of other basketball down the stretch.
Speaking of which, Sling is an especially strong choice if you’re also wanting to watch March Madness over the next three weeks. Every game will be on TNT, TBS, truTV or CBS. “Sling Orange” will get you TNT and TBS, while the “Entertainment Extra” add-on for just $6 per month has truTV. You can then get Paramount+ with SHOWTIME ($12 per month) for the CBS games.
That’s a total of just $33 for the month, which is the cheapest way to watch the ESPN channels and every NCAA tournament game.
We mentioned the five live-TV streaming services with ESPN, and while Sling may be the cheapest among them, there are three that offer a free trial, allowing you to watch the Bucks vs Celtics at no cost.
Fubo (“Pro” channel plan) will give you seven days for free, while YouTube TV (“Base Plan”) and DirecTV Stream (“Entertainment” channel plan or above) both come with a five-day free trial.
If you are interested in catching some college basketball while you’re signed up, it’s worth noting that YouTube TV and DirecTV Stream both have every channel you’ll need to watch every tournament game. That means you can watch every Round of 64 (Thursday and Friday) and Round of 32 (Saturday and Sunday) game while on your free five-day trial.
Fubo, unfortunately, does not have any of the Turner-owned channels (TNT, TBS, truTV).
If you’re subscribed to one of those streaming services but are out of the country at the time of the game, you can use a virtual private network (VPN) to watch. VPN’s mask your IP address/location, allowing you to stream content from other countries that is normally geo-locked.
NordVPN is easily one of the best VPN services. It has a 30-day money-back guarantee so you can try it out risk-free, but it’s likely something you’ll want to keep long-term anyways.
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