The NBA will begin its streaming-exclusive era with the Celtics, Knicks and Lakers.
Amazon Prime Video will begin its NBA run with a doubleheader of Celtics-Knicks and Timberwolves-Lakers on Friday, October 24, it was announced Wednesday, marking the first NBA games ever carried exclusively via a streaming service.
That was the first of six Friday night Prime doubleheaders announced by the league, with the rest taking place as part of NBA Cup group play: Celtics-Sixers and Lakers-Grizzlies on October 31, Rockets-Spurs and Warriors-Nuggets on November 7, Heat-Knicks and Warriors-Spurs on November 14, Pacers-Cavaliers and Nuggets-Rockets on November 21 and Bucks-Knicks and Mavericks-Lakers on Black Friday.
All of the doubleheaders are slated for the usual NBA national TV windows of 7:00/9:30 or 7:30/10 PM ET. That includes the Black Friday games, which should lead directly out of postgame coverage for Prime’s special NFL broadcast that afternoon.
With the NBA announcing the entirety of its NBA Cup group play schedule on Wednesday, the league also disclosed a few more games on its other television partners. NBC will air a doubleheader of Magic-Sixers and Clippers-Lakers on November 25, with the former airing at 8 PM ET and the latter at 11 PM, in keeping with the split regional format that the network will use on Tuesday games all season.
Notably, there is only one other game scheduled that night — Hawks-Wizards — an indication that the league may go with a light schedule on NBC’s Tuesdays, much as it did for TNT’s Tuesdays and Thursdays.
ESPN is scheduled for a rare tripleheader on November 26, the night before Thanksgiving, with Pistons-Celtics at 5:00, Timberwolves-Thunder at 7:30 and Rockets-Warriors at 10:00. Pistons-Celtics will air in a window that has previously been occupied by the Maui Invitational final.
Thanksgiving week has long been one of the higher-profile ESPN dates in the regular season, and the new tripleheader would seem like a logical spot for ESPN to carry the TNT-produced “Inside the NBA” between Opening Week and Christmas. When ESPN announced its licensing agreement to carry “Inside” last year, Opening Week and Christmas were the only set appearances mentioned before the first of the year.
