After their furious comeback tied the series at two games apiece, the Oklahoma City Thunder return home for a Game 5 showdown against the Dallas Mavericks tonight. This one won’t completely decide the series, but tonight’s winner will become heavy favorites to advance.
The game is about to tip, at 9:30 p.m. ET, so pick a streaming option below soon. It’ll be televised on TNT, but if you’re looking for ways to stream the NBA playoffs, we’ve compiled a number of different options for watching a live stream of the Mavs vs Thunder Game 5.
If you’re searching for a way to watch a live stream of this game and the rest of the NBA playoffs, our recommendation is Sling TV, which is by far the cheapest cable-free way to watch every single game (televised on TNT, ESPN and ABC) of the NBA postseason.
The “Sling Blue” channel package will get you TNT, while the “Sling Orange” plan will get you ESPN and ESPN3 (which simulcasts ABC games). Those two plans are normally either $40 per month individually or $55 per month bundled together, but there’s a current Sling TV deal offering them for either $15 individually or $30 together. That’s $30 for every game of the playoffs, which is an unbelievably good deal.
If you’re only concerned about watching tonight’s game, you could start a free trial of YouTube TV (“Base Plan”) or DirecTV Stream (“Entertainment” plan or above). Both of these live-TV streaming services include TNT (as well as ABC and ESPN). They’re both more expensive than Sling long-term, but they offer a five-day free trial, allowing you to watch the Mavs vs Thunder Game 5 without paying anything.
Sling may be the cheapest long-term option for watching every NBA playoff game, but if you want the least expensive way to watch the TNT games only, then Max is the way to go. While there’s no Max free trial, it’s just $10 per month for a subscription, which will get you every game that’s televised on TNT. It’s part of the B/R Sports add-on, but you don’t need to do anything special to get it. It’s currently included at no extra cost.
For those who are outside of the United States and don’t want to bother with international streaming sites, you can use a virtual private network (VPN) to access any of the aforementioned streaming services (you’ll still need a subscription). Those services are all restricted to US-only, but a VPN hides your IP address/location in order to bypass those geo-locks.
NordVPN sits atop our list of the best VPN services, so that’s what we would go with to watch the Mavs vs Thunder Game 5 from abroad. It comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
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.