Running away at the top of the standings, the Boston Celtics head to Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse for a potential East finals preview against the Cleveland Cavaliers tonight.
The game tips off soon, at 7:30 p.m. ET, and will be televised nationally on TNT. If you don’t have cable or you want to watch a live stream of the game for any reason, there are several different ways you can do so.
We’ll get to the free options in the next section, but Sling TV is currently offering a deal worth mentioning first. The “Sling Orange” channel package, which includes TNT, ESPN and 30 other live-TV channels, costs just $20 for your first month, plus you can also get Paramount+ with SHOWTIME, Starz, AMC+ and MGM+ all for free for your first month, as well.
That’s a pretty absurd amount of value if you don’t mind spending $20 for a month, but it’s also not a bad long-term option. “Sling Orange” is just $40 per month after that, which makes it the cheapest streaming service with both ESPN and TNT. There are some more extensive options, but if you just want to watch the biggest one or two NBA games most days, then this is the way to go.
Both YouTube TV (“Base Plan”) and DirecTV Stream (“Entertainment” package) include TNT, and they both come with a free five-day trial.
Either option will work for watching tonight’s game for free, but if you want something long-term, YouTube TV comes in slightly cheaper at $63 per month for your first three months ($73 after that) versus DirecTV Stream at $80 per month. However, you can certainly make up that difference with DirecTV Stream offering Max (formerly HBO Max), Cinemax, Starz, Paramount+ with Showtime and MGM+ all for free for your first three months.
Max subscribers ($10 per month, no free trial) can watch all NBA on TNT games through the B/R Sports Add-On. That add-on will eventually be $10 per month, but it’s available for a limited time at no extra cost. It was originally planned to become a paid option on February 29, but that was pushed back, so you can still watch the game for free if you have Max.
If you’re subscribed to any of the above but you’re currently out of the country, you can use a virtual private network (VPN) to watch your streaming service as if you were still at home. VPN’s hide your IP address/location and connect you to a server in a different country, allowing you to bypass any geo-blocks.
NordVPN would be our recommendation. It’s reliable, fast and has nearly 2,000 servers in the US alone, which makes it perfect for what we’re looking for here. You can also check out our lists of best VPN services or best VPN deals.
Some of the best shots in Grok Imagine’s AI-made Odyssey don’t contain actors. Ancient landscapes stretch into the distance. Close-ups of grimy hands suggest people who have touched something rougher than a keyboard. For a few seconds, the illusion holds.
https://twitter.com/imagine/status/2113712964419063911
YouTube videos could soon look better without eating quite so much data, right? Thankfully, the platform plans to introduce a new video format called AV2 on its web player in early 2027, promising more efficient streaming and potentially fewer playback hiccups on slower internet connections. The big headline is a roughly 30% improvement in compression efficiency over AV1, YouTube's existing video format. That doesn't guarantee every video will use 30% less data, but it could make streaming a little easier on both internet connections and data allowances.
What is AV2, and why should viewers care?
YouTube is changing how its Home page works, giving viewers more control over what shows up there and making some of the app’s most-used sections easier to reach. Custom Feeds are now replacing the existing topic chips for eligible users, while YouTube is also testing a redesigned top bar on mobile that moves Subscriptions closer to the Home feed.
YouTube first started experimenting with Custom Feeds earlier this year, letting you type out what you wanted to watch and turning that request into its own stream of recommendations. Now, the feature is starting to look less like a side experiment and more like something YouTube actually wants people to use as part of their everyday Home page.