The experience streaming the NBA Playoffs has “been pretty great,” with this season the first for games on Prime Video and Peacock, according to Tony Maglio of the HOLLYWOOD REPORTER. However, Maglio wrote if there is “one streaming video service worth paying for, it is Amazon’s.” The NBA has “made a relatively smooth transition to the platform.” Any “real kinks with streaming live, primetime (and big time) sports were mostly ironed out during Prime Video’s earlier ‘Thursday Night Football’ games.” Amazon’s 13,000-square-foot, two-story NBA studio -- a regulation-sized half court -- and its LED floor are “best in class,” and “NBA on Prime” host Taylor Rooks and analyst Blake Griffin “are as well.” Maglio wrote he takes “much comfort” in Ian Eagle calling the game on the floor. Like Prime Video, Peacock’s “growing pains (in terms of live streaming, at least) are mostly in the past thanks to its own primetime NFL rights for ‘Sunday Night Football.’” However, there was an “audio problem with Monday night’s start to the Western Conference Finals” (HOLLYWOOD REPORTER, 5/19).
STILL SOME ISSUES: In London, Aaron Timms wrote these have “been a difficult debut playoffs for Prime.” The feed “dropped out for several minutes” during overtime in the play-in game between the Hornets and the Heat. Buffering has “plagued the stream in several games,” while video has “frequently been mistimed with audio, producing delays and mismatches.” Compounding these technical difficulties has been the “absence of any sense of occasion or big game feel on the Prime Video set.” Steve Nash and Dirk Nowitzki are Prime’s “two heavy hitters, but even though they played together they often interact as if they’re vague acquaintances who’ve just bumped into each other at dinner.” It is “all a bit too polite, a bit too safe, to make for compelling TV.” Prime “did its best to match the moment” of the Cavaliers win over the Pistons in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals on Sunday by “producing a broadcast that was every bit as dull and juiceless as events on the court.” During the half-time show, Nowitzki “rambled Germanly about various topics,” while Rooks “tried valiantly to compensate for the lack of chemistry on set by laughing at even the slightest hint of a joke from any of her panellists” (London GUARDIAN, 5/19).
WORD PLAY: SI’s Jimmy Traina noted NBC lead NBA voice Mike Tirico does “not have a signature call,” so “instead of relying on a phrase, Tirico repeatedly became a master wordsmith” during Spurs C Victor Wembanyama’s historic 41-point, 24-rebound night in the team’s Western Conference Finals Game 1 win over the Thunder. Tirico was able to be “diverse in his calls,” and he “unloaded the barrel.” It is “not a surprise at all that Tirico would shine during one of the most memorable NBA games in recent history” (SI, 5/19).
