Tonight’s 2015 NBA Finals are shaping up to be the massive sporting spectacle we all knew it would be. The Golden State Warriors haven’t made it this far in the league’s schedule since before there was a such thing as the Regan administration. The Cavaliers, complete with Lebron James, look poised to dominate the court. Tonight you can watch the NBA Finals on the Xbox One and Xbox 360, provided you know where to look.
Unfortunately, having a Sling TV subscription won’t get you the 2015 NBA Finals on the Xbox One like it did with some other major sporting events this year. Thankfully, there’s another Xbox Live enabled app that will. This app is simply called ESPN, and it allows users to watch live video feeds from ESPN’s cable channels. The bad news is that the game will air on ESPN 3 and to watch live streams of that channel users need a cable or satellite subscription from a company that has a deal with Disney ESPN’s parent company. The ESPN app is free and you can snap the NBA GameTime app to the side of your display for some high-level statistics on the NBA Finals. The Xbox One and Xbox 360 have dedicated ESPN apps. Comcast is among the providers that offer ESPN streaming.
Disney’s broadcast channel, ABC, is also broadcasting the 2015 NBA Finals. This means you can watch the Golden State Warriors vs Cavaliers games directly through the Watch ABC apps for smartphones and tablets — depending on their location. The Xbox One doesn’t have a dedicated Watch ABC app, but if you’ve connected your console to your cable or satellite box you’ll be fine. Just tell the console to “Watch ABC.” Since you can snap the TV app to the side of your screen, you can game while you watch Lebron step all over the Warriors. The Xbox OneGuide will also provide you with tweets about the game from fans.
Both ABC and ESPN have countdowns planned. The NBA Countdown starts at 8:30PM EST, with the actual game going live at 9PM.
