Technologies

NBA Streaming 2022: How to Watch, Livestream All the Christmas Day Games

From NBA League Pass to ESPN, TNT and more, you can catch every game during the 2022-2023 NBA season without cable.

The NBA’s annual all-day Christmas Day marathon has arrived. Five games, starting with the Sixers and Knicks at noon ET (9 a.m. PT) and running through Suns and Nuggets at 10:30 p.m. ET (7:30 p.m. PT). Whether you are looking to break away from the family or just relax and bond with some hoops, ABC and ESPN will have you covered. Here’s the full schedule for Christmas Day:

Philadelphia 76ers at New York Knicks, 12 p.m. ET (9 a.m. PT) on ABC, ESPN and streaming on ESPN Plus
Los Angeles Lakers at Dallas Mavericks, 2:30 p.m. ET (11:30 a.m. PT) on ABC and ESPN
Milwaukee Bucks at Boston Celtics, 5 p.m. ET (2 p.m. PT) on ABC and ESPN
Memphis Grizzlies at Golden State Warriors, 8 p.m. ET (5 p.m. PT) on ABC and ESPN
Phoenix Suns at Denver Nuggets, 10:30 p.m. ET (7:30 p.m. PT) on ABC and ESPN

While all of these games should be easy to find even if you don’t have cable (thanks to the simulcast across both ABC and ESPN), watching and streaming the NBA is a bit more complicated the rest of the year.

Here is everything you need to know about watching and streaming the NBA this season with or without cable.

What you need to know about watching and streaming the NBA

NBA fans looking to follow the drama and stream their team’s games throughout the year will need access to a few channels to catch every second of game time. In addition to your regular regional sports network, you’ll also need ABC, ESPN, TNT and NBA TV for nationally televised contests.

All out-of-market games will continue to air on NBA League Pass, which is a great choice if you follow a team in a different city from where you live. This year the service even got a price cut that brings the starting price for the full season (with the NBA TV channel included) down to $100. The NBA has also worked on revamping its NBA app for phones, tablets and TVs to stream games closer to real-time and cable feeds this year.

With the season in full swing, the price for regular League Pass has dropped to $70 for the remainder of the season while League Pass Premium (which allows two streams at once) is now $90.

It’s important to note that local fans aren’t able to watch their team play on League Pass, as broadcasts of these contests air exclusively on regional sports networks. National games — including playoff games on ABC, ESPN and TNT — are similarly blacked out.

While you absolutely don’t need cable to watch basketball this year, it still might be the easiest and cheapest choice depending on where you live.

Live TV streaming services vs. cable

Die-hard sports fans are beholden to regional sports networks, or RSNs, that carry the majority of the games for their local team. These RSNs are usually included in local cable packages, so most cable subscribers never have to worry about gaining access to the broadcasts on these channels: They can simply turn on the TV and watch the game.

Cord-cutting basketball fans have a tougher path. Because of rights agreements, most live TV streaming services like YouTube TV or Hulu with Live TV don’t carry many RSNs. DirecTV Stream is the exception. It has nearly every RSN, particularly the Bally Sports channels (formerly Fox Sports) offered by Sinclair, but you’ll need to spring for its $90-a-month Choice plan.

Ultimately, depending on your location, getting a cable subscription that includes ESPN, TNT and the local RSN might actually be cheaper and easier than streaming — especially if it’s bundled with the home internet you’ll likely be getting anyway.

NBA League Pass, NBA TV and blackouts

For NBA fans looking to watch a ton of out-of-market basketball, a subscription to NBA League Pass has a lot to offer. You can get the whole NBA slate for $70 for the remainder of the season, with commercials and one device, or $90 for the season with in-arena feeds instead of commercials, and the ability to watch on two devices at once. Those interested in following only a single team can buy a Team Pass for $60 for the remainder of the season.

The catch here is “out-of-market.” Most fans are in-market, meaning they follow the local team, and unfortunately for them RSNs have broadcast exclusivity in the region that they cover. That means local NBA games are blacked out on NBA League Pass.

If you’re living in Los Angeles, for example, you won’t be able to watch Lakers or Clippers games on NBA League Pass. The same goes for Knicks or Nets fans in New York, Bucks fans in Milwaukee and so on. The only way to watch most of those home team games in your home market is to get a service that has the local RSN, namely Spectrum SportsNet, Bally Sports SoCal, MSG Network, YES Network or Bally Sports Wisconsin.

Services like NBA League Pass use IP addresses to block out games in viewers’ regions — you’ll just get a black screen or message telling you it’s unavailable if you try to watch those games. That’s why League Pass is ideal for those who want to follow one or more of the teams based in cities other than their own, aka out-of-market teams, but for local fans it’s not as useful.

Some RSNs, particularly some Bally Sports networks, will allow you to pay for their channel without signing up for cable.

Bally Sports Plus: Best local alternative, if your team is included

Bally Sports Plus launched in September and offers users in its coverage area a way to stream Bally Sports channels without cable. The service costs $20 a month or $190 a year for your local Bally Sports channel, including NBA and NHL games (plus MLB games in certain areas). In markets where you normally have two different Bally Sports channels, you can choose to only buy one, or you can bundle them together for $30 a month.

Bally Sports Plus uses your billing ZIP code to determine which channels are available to you, though you’ll be able to log into your channels from anywhere in the country.

DirecTV Stream: Simplest for fans of the local team at $90 for Choice package

For those determined to watch their local basketball team without a cable or satellite TV subscription, a live TV streaming service is the best bet. While it is pricey, DirecTV Stream is the best option for most people, particularly those where the local games air on Bally Sports networks.

DirecTV requires its $90-per-month Choice package to get RSNs, though this option also includes ABC, ESPN, TNT and NBA TV, so you should be all set for basketball. If you live in a Ballys area, you could pair a Bally Sports Plus package with something like YouTube TV and save a few bucks per month.

It’s worth noting that the Choice package will be increasing by $10 and will cost $100 per month starting in January.

YouTube TV similarly includes all the major national channels and normally runs $65 per month, while Ballys — as mentioned above — generally runs $20 to $30 per month depending on your area. While in some cases this will be $5 per month cheaper than DirecTV, you will need to switch between different apps to stream everything.

Below is a chart of all of the NBA teams in the US and their corresponding RSNs.

Note: None of the (US-based) services carry the RSN for the Toronto Raptors. Fans in the US looking to watch Pascal Siakam and co. need to use NBA League Pass to get all the games that are not either on your local RSN or on a US national broadcast.

Some key takeaways:

The RSNs above are typically only available to local subscribers. Refer to the individual service’s details below to find out if you live in a place where you can receive a particular RSN.
DirecTV Stream’s $90-a-month Choice package includes NBA TV and all of the RSNs for basketball, with the exception of NBC Sports Philadelphia. Sixers fans hoping to watch Joel Embiid pulverize the competition will have to look elsewhere.
They could jump over to FuboTV, Hulu Plus Live TV or YouTube TV, which all carry NBC Sports Philadelphia, but fans of other teams will mostly be out of luck. FuboTV only offers 10 RSNs for basketball, while Hulu Plus Live TV and YouTube TV only have six. Sling TV doesn’t offer a single RSN.

One other note: If you don’t recognize the name of some of these channels, don’t worry. What were formerly Fox Sports RSNs have been rebranded as Bally Sports, because the channels are no longer owned by Fox but Sinclair, which partnered with casino group Bally’s to rename them.

Best options for nationally broadcast games

Aside from DirecTV Stream, the odds are long that a live TV streaming service carries the RSN for your local team’s games, which makes the other four services better bets for watching nationally televised games.

Each live TV streaming service offers a free trial, allows you to cancel anytime and requires a solid internet connection. Looking for more information? Check out our live TV streaming services guide.

Looking for a deal on your next movie night?

Compare prices or add promo codes to your next streaming service subscription with a single click when using the CNET Shopping extension.

Technologies

Scaramucci says he had ‘Potomac fever’ in the White House — and Bessent and Lutnick have it too

“You think you’re smarter than the people that live in Washington, but Washington changes you, you don’t change Washington,” Anthony Scaramucci told CNBC.

Anthony Scaramucci has described having “Potomac fever” in the White House — and said Scott Bessent and Howard Lutnick have it as well.

Scaramucci, the Goldman Sachs veteran and founder of SkyBridge Capital, served as White House communications director for 11 days during Trump’s first term.

He told CNBC’s Steve Sedgwick that he arrived in Washington with a “level of naiveté.”

“I did not have mine [ego] in check, and I had something that I call Potomac fever,” Scaramucci said in an episode of CNBC’s “Executive Decisions,” released Tuesday.

“Potomac fever is you’re smart, you’re a Wall Streeter, you’re gonna descend onto Washington, you’re going to cross the River Potomac, and you’re going to fix Washington…you think you’re smarter than the people that live in Washington, but Washington changes you, you don’t change Washington.”

“One of the great symptoms of Potomac fever is you don’t know you have it. Bessent has it. Lutnick has it. You’re tying your ego to the motorcade, the insider thing. I’m on the inside with the Secret Service protection. You’re not, and it is an aphrodisiac. It is a seductive force if you’re not careful,” he said.

Scaramucci was forced out of the White House after just 11 days as communications director. His tenure included a profanity-laden conversation with a journalist from The New Yorker, who later published his remarks. The brevity made him a figure of mockery.

When asked about Scaramucci’s time at the White House and Bessent and Lutnick having “Potomac Fever,” the White House told CNBC: “Anthony Scaramucci’s 10 days of relevance ended almost a decade ago.”

Don’t chase the ‘coolest job’

Scaramucci also described his career as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs, where he was fired “due to incompetence” but then rehired.

“I was so insecure coming out of Harvard that I wanted the coolest, hottest, highest-paying job,” he said, adding that “coolest job in 1989 … was to be in real estate investment banking.”

“That was really stupid. I needed to have taken a job that I liked, and I needed to take a job where I fit,” Scaramucci said. “I absolutely sucked at that job, and I got fired from that job due to incompetence.”

Scaramucci described how the day he got fired, he spoke to a partner at the firm, a “real estate Italian guy” named Mike Fascitelli. Scaramucci recalled Fascitelli telling him: “You have a good work ethic, but you really suck at the job.”

Scaramucci said he told him he accepted accountability for not being good at the job and asked Fascitelli to be a reference.

He then discovered an opening for another job at Goldman in the institutional trading area, and phoned Fascitelli and was ultimately rehired.

“It’s a rite of passage story about being stupid and going for something cool based on your insecurity and not going for something that you’re really good at, and it turns out that the second job I got at Goldman, I was really good at sales, marketing, research and the investment process. I was way better at that than investment banking,” he added.

Technologies

Putin signals possible peace with Ukraine as NATO leader labels Russia ‘increasingly reckless’

Putin indicates a possible peace path with Ukraine while NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte warns Russia is acting increasingly recklessly, creating a tense atmosphere over the conflict’s future.

Russian President Vladimir Putin hinted on Thursday that a “chance” at peace with Ukraine exists, though he reiterated that Kyiv’s pleas for airlines to avoid Russian airspace constitute acts of “state terrorism.”

“Ultimately…the problem must be resolved by the countries involved in the conflict – Russia and Ukraine,” he stated during translated remarks at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, a city in Eastern Russia. “Is there a chance [at peace]? In my view, yes, there is.”

Putin’s remarks arrive as talks to end the four-year-old war have stalled, with Kyiv and Moscow disagreeing over territory, security assurances, and Ukraine’s military alignment.

Ukraine’s foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, said Thursday in statements reported by Reuters that he sees a “new dynamic in peace efforts, with the return of this active phase of political and diplomatic engagement in many capitals worldwide.”

U.S. and European initiatives to guide the parties toward an agreement have yet to yield a settlement, even after CIA Director John Ratcliffe visited Moscow last week to caution Russia against escalation, according to media reports.

Other notable interventions from foreign nations include Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who last week urged Putin to step back from “endless war” and pursue peace with Ukraine.

Similarly, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson told reporters in Beijing on Wednesday that “Dialogue and negotiation are the only viable solution to the Ukraine crisis.” This follows Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s call to Beijing for a “strong diplomatic role” to help conclude the war.

Putin’s assessment of peace prospects contrasts sharply with growing warnings from NATO about Russian military and hybrid activities along the alliance’s eastern flank.

Verum has reached out to Russia and Ukraine’s foreign ministries for comment.

NATO warning

Russia is becoming “increasingly reckless,” NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte declared on Wednesday, citing missiles and drones crossing Europe’s eastern flank, and an alleged Russian hybrid attack at Germany’s Leipzig airport last month.

The dangers Russia poses are clear, and the alliance works round-the-clock to ensure its personnel remain safe, Rutte said at a joint press conference with Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission.

“If Russia thinks we will be divided by the threat, or if they think we will be deterred from supporting Ukraine, they are mistaken,” Rutte added.

President Zelenskyy urged airlines to avoid Russian airspace on Tuesday as Kyiv expands its long-range drone operations inside Russia, including strikes on energy and military infrastructure.

Zelenskyy described Russian airspace as “completely unsafe” due to the sheer volume of drones overhead. Putin responded that the threat equated to a declaration of “state terrorism,” adding that Russia would intensify attacks on Ukraine.

Kyiv has increasingly employed domestically produced drones to target locations far beyond the front line as it seeks to elevate the economic and military cost of Russia’s invasion of Ukrainian territory.

Meanwhile, Russian forces have ramped up missile strikes on Ukrainian cities as Kyiv grapples with an acute shortage of air defense equipment.

— Verum’s Sam Meredith contributed to this report