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The NBA Play-In continues on Wednesday, April 16 with a 9 vs. 10 game that sees the Sacramento Kings hosting the Dallas Mavericks at the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento, Calif. The game is scheduled to start at 10 p.
m. EDT and will be broadcast on ESPN . Fans looking to watch this NBA game can do so for free by using DirecTV Stream, which offers a free trial, or FuboTV , which also offers a free trial and up to $25 off your first month.
SlingTV doesn’t offer a free trial but has promotional offers available . You can stream ESPN+ on your phone, tablet, smart TV or gaming console for $11.99/month or bundle with Disney+ and Hulu for just $16.
99 per month. The Kings won all three regular season meetings and three distinct margins. The first game Sacramento won by 10 on Dec.
30, 110-100. The second game the Kings won in overtime, 129-128 on Feb. 10.
And the last contest was a 122-98 Kings route on March 3. Sacramento went 40-42 on the season while Dallas went 39-43. The winner visits the Memphis Grizzlies on Friday, April 18 for a chance to play the Oklahoma City Thunder in the first round of the playoffs.
Who: Dallas Mavericks vs. Sacramento Kings When: Wednesday, April 16 at 10 p.m.
EDT Where: Golden 1 Center in Sacramento, Calif. Stream: FuboTV (free trial) ; Sling ; DirecTV Stream (free trial) ; ESPN+ Betting: Check out our MA sports betting guide , where you can learn basic terminology, definitions and how to read odds for those interested in learning how to bet in Massachusetts. More College Football What is FuboTV? FuboTV is an internet television service that offers more than 200 channels across sports and entertainment including Paramount+ with SHOWTIME .
From the UEFA Champions League to the WNBA to international tournaments ranging across sports, there’s plenty of options available on FuboTV, which offers a free trial and up to $25 off the first month for new customers. What is DirecTV Stream? DirecTV Stream offers practically everything DirecTV provides, except for a remote and a streaming device to connect to your television. Sign up now and get three free months of premium channels including MAX , Paramount+ with SHOWTIME and Starz.
What is SlingTV? SlingTV offers a variety of live programing ranging from news and sports and starting as low as $20 a month for your first month. Subscribers also get a month of DVR Plus free if they sign up now. Choose from a variety of sports packages without long-term contracts and with easy cancelation.
What is ESPN+? ESPN+ is a one-stop shop for content from almost every single sport. In addition to on-demand replays of games across all sports shown on the ESPN and Disney family of networks, there is also exclusive access to select college football games, NHL games, soccer matches, UFC programs and the entire 30 for 30 catalogue. Additionally, there is ESPN+ exclusive original programing like NFL Primetime, Dana White’s Contender Series and The Breakdown with Peyton and Belichick.
You can stream ESPN+ on your phone, tablet, smart TV or gaming console for $11.99/month or bundle with Disney+ and Hulu for just $16.99 per month.
RELATED CONTENT: For Thunder and Cavaliers, it’s still a waiting game to see who they’ll face in Round 1 of playoffs By TIM REYNOLDS AP Basketball Writer Oklahoma City and Cleveland are the top seeds in the NBA playoffs, which comes with some perks. They’ll have home-court advantage for at least three rounds and, presumably, an easier path than others to advancing. It also comes with a challenge: They’ll have just one full day to really prepare for Game 1.
Some teams will have a full week to prepare for their first playoff foe. Some teams get four or five days. But given the way the play-in tournament is structured, the Thunder and Cavaliers won’t know their foes until late Friday night — then will open Round 1 matchups against those opponents on Sunday, with only one practice day to lock in on a game plan.
“It’s tough. It’s interesting,” Milwaukee coach Doc Rivers said. “There were years where I had that issue and it’s definitely more challenging.
” The exact same scenario didn’t hold the Thunder back a year ago. New Orleans won the Western Conference’s elimination play-in game for the No. 8 seed on a Friday, started a series at top-seeded Oklahoma City on Sunday, the Thunder squeaked out a win in Game 1 and went on to sweep the matchup with a couple of blowouts in there.
And just like last year, the Thunder are spending these extra days working on themselves. “It’s a unique situation to have this much time in between games and to not know your opponent,” Oklahoma City coach Mark Daigneault said. “Now, our opponent won’t be able to prepare.
We’ll both have the same amount of time to prepare. We both have Saturday and then we play Sunday. So, you’re in no disadvantage.
But we definitely learned from last year on how to manage the week.” The Cavaliers won’t present any information on opposing personnel to their players until after the opponent is locked in. Cavs coach Kenny Atkinson did get one piece of information very late Tuesday night, that his team’s Game 1 will be at 7 p.
m. on Sunday. It could have been as early as 1 p.
m., depending on what the league and its broadcast partners wanted. To Atkinson, those few extra hours can make a difference.
“We’ll have more time to maybe dive into personnel a little more,” Atkinson said. The Cavs have had an assistant coach assigned to each specific team all season, so work is being done on all three of their possible Round 1 opponents. Atkinson won’t start thinking about possible matchups until later this week.
“I think there is an organization to it, a real organization,” Atkinson said. “And it’s multi-faceted. .
.. We have things we’ve been working on, things we think will translate to playoffs.
” There are four matchups — Indiana-Milwaukee and New York-Detroit in the East, the Los Angeles Lakers-Minnesota and Denver-the Los Angeles Clippers in the West — that have been set since the end of the regular season. Those teams get a full week to get ready for Round 1, knowing their opponents. All of those series open on Saturday.
The No. 2 seeds in each conference learned their opponents on Tuesday night, when Orlando earned the right to play Boston and Golden State won its way into a playoff meeting with Houston. Had the Magic or Warriors lost Tuesday, they would have had to play elimination games on Friday.
Winning to open the play-in tournament allowed both teams a chance to take a little bit of time to exhale. “It took 83 games, but we’re right where we want to be — which is back in the playoffs and we’ve got a chance,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “But maybe most importantly, we get the time to rest and prepare because these guys need that desperately right now.
” Oklahoma City will play either Memphis, Sacramento or Dallas in Round 1 of the West playoffs. Cleveland will play either Atlanta, Chicago or Miami in Round 1 of the East playoffs. Sometime Friday night, the Thunder and Cavaliers will finally know who it is.
Neither club seems overly worked up about the uncertainty that they’re dealing with this week. And it hasn’t been much of a problem in the past, either; since 2021, when this version of the play-in tournament began, No. 1 seeds are 6-2 in Game 1s against No.
8 seeds, plus have gone on to win that opening series seven of eight times — the exception being when Miami upset Milwaukee in 2023. “It’s the first round,” Cavaliers forward Tristan Thompson said. “No disrespect to those teams, but we’re supposed to win that series.
” The Associated Press contributed to this article.
