Play‑In will stream only
The NBA announced this year’s Play‑In Tournament will be available only via streaming rather than on traditional TV channels. (nytimes.com) The league also published the Play‑In schedule and matchup times, and Houston is locked into the No. 5 seed — meaning the Rockets will open on the road against either the Lakers or Nuggets depending on Sunday's final regular‑season results. (si.com) (rocketswire.usatoday.com)
The National Basketball Association’s Play-In Tournament will not air on traditional television this year; all six games are set for Prime Video. (nba.com) (aboutamazon.com) The league’s official postseason calendar lists the SoFi Play-In Tournament for April 14 through April 17, with the first round of the playoffs starting April 18. (nba.com) Sports Illustrated’s published schedule lists two games on Tuesday, April 14, two on Wednesday, April 15, and the final two win-or-go-home games on Friday, April 17. (si.com) The Play-In format covers the teams that finish seventh through 10th in each conference. The seventh-place team hosts the eighth-place team for the No. 7 seed, while the ninth-place team hosts the 10th-place team in an elimination game; the loser of the 7-versus-8 game then faces the winner of the 9-versus-10 game for the No. 8 seed. (usatoday.com) (nba.com) This is the first postseason under the National Basketball Association’s new media-rights setup with games split among ESPN and ABC, NBC and Peacock, and Amazon Prime Video. Amazon said Prime Video will carry the entire Play-In package from April 14 to April 17. (aboutamazon.com) (nba.com) The change means viewers who relied on cable channels for the Play-In will need a streaming subscription and a device that supports Prime Video. Amazon’s guide says the service is available on smart televisions, phones, tablets, game consoles and streaming sticks. (aboutamazon.com) The schedule release also sharpened the playoff picture in the West. National Basketball Association standings and Rockets Wire both reported Saturday, April 11, that Houston is locked into the No. 5 seed and will open on the road against either the Los Angeles Lakers or the Denver Nuggets. (nba.com) (rocketswire.usatoday.com) Sports Illustrated reported that the Western Conference Play-In field is still sorting out around Phoenix, the Los Angeles Clippers and Portland entering the final day of the regular season. That leaves Houston waiting on Sunday’s results before it knows whether its first-round series starts in Los Angeles or Denver. (si.com) (rocketswire.usatoday.com) For fans, the immediate dates are fixed even if some matchups are not: the regular season ends Sunday, April 12, the Play-In starts Tuesday, April 14, and the full playoff bracket begins to lock in after that. (nba.com)
