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Stream Basketball Live: Don’t Miss Any NBA or NCAA Action!

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As a basketball fan looking to catch all the action without a cable subscription, I’ve found several ways to stream games from the top US leagues online. Let me share the best options for watching your favorite teams.

In a hurry? If you just want to start watching basketball, check out these services:

  • Fubo: A great sports-first streaming service with 150+ channels — roughly of third of which focus on sports. Fubo allows you to try out its service with a free trial.
  • DIRECTV STREAM: Full cable replacement service with everything you expect from a cable package. A 5-day free trial is now available for DIRECTV STREAM.
  • Sling TV: Get just the channels you want with this highly-customizable service. Save 50% on Sling TV now!

If you are a basketball fan, it can be intimidating to stop using cable. But there is really nothing to be concerned about because you can stream basketball better than ever.

The top streaming services offer access to both NCAA basketball and NBA that is every bit as good as what you get with cable plans. In fact, in many cases, you can only stream basketball games.

Sign Up for a Free Fubo Trial

How to Stream Basketball

We’ve put together guides to get you started watching your favorite teams without the cost of a cable subscription.

Watching NBA Online Without Cable

Many NBA games are televised nationally. These are normally shown on ABC, ESPN, NBA TV, and TNT.

Here are the main guides on how to watch NBA games online without cable. We created separate pages for particular leagues like the G League and the All-Star Game too:

How to Watch Specific NBA Teams Without Cable

If you’re looking for a specific NBA team on live TV, you won’t find that many games shown on the national channels. To watch the rest of a team’s games, you will need to acquire one of two packages depending on where you live.

The first thing you need to know is if you are in- (near) or out-of-market (far) to your team. If you live near the team, you will need access to to its regional sports network (RSN). For most teams, you will need either Fubo or DIRECTV STREAM for this. You can find complete information about this in our NBA Guide.

If you are out of your favorite team’s local area, you can see virtually all of their games with NBA League Pass.

You must be in the team’s broadcast area to get the RSN. So for fans of the local NBA team, getting access to the team’s RSN is critical. If you are outside the team’s broadcast area, you can watch most of the games via NBA League Pass.

How to Watch NCAA Basketball Online Without Cable

College basketball is broadcast in a lot of different ways. But the outlets can be categorized in three ways:

  1. National Channels: CBS Sports Network (CBSSN), Fox Sports (FS1, FS2), ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU
  2. Conference Channels: ACC Network (ACCN), Big Ten Network (BTN, B1G), and SEC Network (SECN)
  3. Streaming Services: More and more live sports are broadcast through these services — especially ESPN+ but also FloSports, Peacock, Paramount+, and specialized ones like B1G+.

March Madness is a different matter. All of these games are shown on CBS and the Turner channels TBS, TNT, and truTV. The women’s games are shown on various ESPN channels.

Here are the guides on how you can catch college basketball and March Madness without cable online:

How to Watch Specific NCAA Basketball Teams Without Cable

Our NCAA Basketball Guide contains links to our viewer’s guides for 38 of the top schools.

Stream Basketball With Fubo
Stream basketball on Fubo.

Top Services to Stream Basketball

If you want the basics, most general streaming services will provide you with a lot of basketball to watch. Even a basic $40.00/month Sling Blue or Sling Orange will provide enough action for a lot of fans. And you can get a lot more by adding the Sports Extra add-on for $11/mo.

Streaming Services for Watching NBA Games

There are roughly two kinds of NBA fans: those who root for the home team and those who root for one or more distant teams. (There are also fans who do both.)

Streaming for Local NBA Fans

Local fans really need a streaming service that provides access to their team’s RSN. That means you need to sign up with one of the following:

As I’ve noted, DIRECTV STREAM has the largest selection but Fubo is as good or better outside Los Angeles and New York. Remember: you only get the RSNs that are available in your region.

Sign Up for a Free Fubo Trial

Detroit Pistons Tobias Harris
Cropped from Tobias Harris by Keith Allison under CC BY-SA 2.0.

Streaming for Distant or General NBA Fans

If you don’t care about watching the games of your local team but you still want to follow the NBA season carefully, you should sign up for NBA League Pass. It allows you to watch pretty much every regular-season game live. The catch? You can only watch out-of-market games (that is, games that don’t involve your local team).

You can get NBA League Pass on its own. But it’s convenient to integrate it with a live TV streaming service. These services offer NBA League Pass as an add-on:

The price of NBA League Pass is $14.99/month whether you get the standalone version or get it integrated with a live TV streaming service.

Sign Up for a Free Fubo Trial

Xavier vs Providence
Image cropped from Xavier vs Providence by Ken Jancef under CC BY-SA 2.0. NCAA College Basketball

Streaming Services for Watching NCAA Basketball Games

In some ways, it is easier to stream NCAA basketball games because they are mostly shown nationwide so it doesn’t matter where you live. But it’s harder because games are normally shown on a lot of different channels.

Generally, you will find games on ACC Network, Big Ten Network, CBS Sports Network (CBSSN), ESPN, ESPN2, FS1, FS2, and SEC Network. You can get all these channels with Fubo and DIRECTV STREAM.

Our Choice

Streaming is now a better way to watch basketball than cable or satellite has ever been. My top choice for basketball fans, because of its selection of national channels and RSNs, is Fubo. Fubo allows you to try out its service with a free trial. But if your emphasis is more on college ball, consider DIRECTV STREAM.

FAQs

Can I stream high school basketball?

If you want to watch high school basketball, check out NFHS Network. It streams games from all over the US. Regular TV broadcasts are scattered but you will still find them. They sometimes appear on network affiliates like ABC. But more often, you will find them on smaller channels. A good one for high school sports is Fubo Sports Network.

Page Updates ▼▲

  1. Updated for 2024. Added more information about NCAA basketball. Added Atlanta Hawks to table. General polish.

  2. Image changes. Added a few links.

  3. Updated some sub-sections. Updated some section headings. Added links.

  4. Image changes. Mentioned offers. Put related links.

  5. Added a few links. Various content updates.

  6. More links. Image changes. Misc changes.

  7. Added info about guide. Updated some sub-sections. Mentioned offers. Pricing updates.

  8. Updated some sub-sections. Updated some section headings. Added useful links.

  9. Added FAQ section. Added table of contents. Added links to streaming services. Updated one section. Updated some sub-sections. Pricing updates.

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