The Boston Celtics and Indiana Pacers meet for Game 1 of the 2024 East Finals tonight at TD Garden. It’s the first time in 10 years the Pacers have played in the NBA’s version of the Final Four, while Boston is making its sixth appearance in eight years.
It’s almost game time. The game is scheduled to start very soon, at 8:00 p.m. ET. The main broadcast will be on ESPN, while the “NBA Unplugged with Kevin Hart” alternate broadcast will be on ESPN2. But if you don’t have cable and want to know how to stream the NBA playoffs, we’ve found a handful of different ways you can watch the Pacers vs Celtics Game 1 — and the entire series — live online.
While Sling TV doesn’t offer a free trial (you can check out the next section for some of those options), it tops our list of recommended options due to its cheap long-term price.
The “Sling Orange” channel bundle comes with ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPN3 (which simulcasts the ABC games). That’s every channel you need to watch a live stream of every game of both the East finals and the NBA finals–and it’s currently on sale for just $15 for your first month.
Additionally, if you also want TNT for the West finals, that’s included in the “Sling Blue” channel package, but you can currently get “Sling Orange+Blue” for only $30 for your first month. That’s far, far cheaper than any other live-TV streaming with all of these channels.
If you sign up for Fubo‘s “Pro” channel plan, you’ll get ABC (live in most markets), ESPN and ESPN2, among about 180-plus other live TV channels. It comes with a seven-day free trial, which means you could watch a live stream of Game 1 (today, ESPN), Game 2 (Thursday, ESPN), Game 3 (Saturday, ABC) and Game 4 (Monday, ESPN) and then cancel your subscription without having to pay anything. Just note that Fubo doesn’t come with TNT, so you won’t be able to watch the West finals on there.
Should the series extend longer than that, or if you’re just looking for a different option for tonight’s game, you could then use your free five-day trial of YouTube TV (“Base Plan”) and/or DirecTV Stream (“Entertainment” plan or above) to watch. They both include ABC (live in most markets), ESPN, ESPN2 and TNT.
If you’re outside the United States, you can use a virtual private network (VPN) to watch a live stream of the game. All of the streaming services we just talked about are typically US-only, but a VPN can hide your IP address/location in order to bypass those geographical restrictions, allowing you to watch Sling or whatever other streaming service you want from practically any country outside the US.
NordVPN ranks No. 1 on our guide to the best VPN services thanks to its safety, speed and reputation for working with most streaming service. Though it doesn’t come with a normal free trial (meaning you’ll have to pay when you sign up), it does have a 30-day money-back guarantee.
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