The Los Angeles Lakers’ six-game homestand comes to a close tonight when they take on the Minnesota Timberwolves in a potential first-round preview.
Tip-off is only moments away, at 9:30 p.m. ET, and will be televised on ESPN. There are a handful of different ways you can watch a live stream of the game, including three free options.
This is a non-free option, as Sling TV doesn’t offer a free trial, but it’s a good one if you want something cheap for the long-term. The “Sling Orange” channel bundle, which includes ESPN and TNT, will run you just $20 for your first month and then $40 per month after that.
Even if you include the “Sports Extra” add-on ($11 per month) for NBA TV, and NBA League Pass ($15 per month) for every single out-of-market game, that will give you everything you need to watch a ton of NBA for just $66 per month. That’s still cheaper long-term than other streaming services without League Pass.
OK, long-term pricing isn’t a big factor, or if you simply just want to watch the Timberwolves vs Lakers tonight without having to pay anything, there are three good ways to do so.
The Fubo “Pro” channel package, YouTube TV “Base Plan” and DirecTV Stream “Entertainment” package all include ESPN, and they all come with a free trial (Fubo’s is seven days, the others are five). So, with any of them, you can sign up (you’ll need an email address and credit card), watch the game and then cancel without paying.
If you happen to be a subscriber to one of those streaming services but you’re currently outside of the US, you’ll need to use a virtual private network (VPN) to watch the game. VPN’s hide your IP address–which masks your location–and then connects you to a server that’s located wherever you’re trying to access content. So, for example, if you’re in Spain, you can use a VPN to connect to a US-based server and watch the game via Sling or Fubo or any of the aforementioned streaming services.
NordVPN has nearly 2,000 servers in the US alone (and over 6,000 worldwide), which is important because some streaming services will block certain servers. But with NordVPN, you’ll assuredly be able to find one that works with your streaming service.
If you change your mind at any point within a month of signing up, NordVPN comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee. You can then check out our lists of the best VPN services and best VPN deals to find one that works better for you.
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.