NBC is taking some serious flak for its questionable scheduling decision for the start of the NBA conference semifinals.
The broadcasting giant got the assignment on a pair of series openers on Tuesday for the Detroit Pistons-Cleveland Cavaliers and the Oklahoma City Thunder-Los Angeles Lakers series. With only eight teams remaining in the NBA postseason field, fans expect to get treated to back-to-back conference semis matchups every day.
However, NBC scheduled about an hour overlap between the Pistons-Cavs game (7 p.m. ET tipoff) and the Thunder-Lakers game (8:30 p.m. ET tipoff). With no other games on the slate, fans were fuming about not being able to watch the games one after the other.
NBC overlapping these playoff games really pissing me off dawg THERES ONLY 2 GAMES A NIGHT NOW
— A ✩ (@adryanashton) May 6, 2026
This nbc coverage of the nba playoffs is terrible
— cre8flow.the (@cre8flow) May 6, 2026
2 games on tv at same time
I knew when tnt lost the contract fans were getting screwed
I think @peacock @NBCSports @NBA need to explain why they chose to overlap the only 2 NBA playoff games that are on today? Lakers/Thunder could have been pushed an hour.
— Doctor Sunshine (@doc_sunshineMD) May 6, 2026
No concern for the viewers. Blatant disregard for those with genuine interest in both series. Ridiculous
Many felt like it was a money grab, given that anyone hoping to catch both games live and in their entirety would have needed a Peacock subscription.
The NBA letting NBC air games simultaneously so that you’re forced to subscribe to Peacock if you want to catch the beginning of the 2nd game is lame.
— Jamal (@FinesseBucket) May 6, 2026
It is SO embarrassing that an NBA playoffs second round game is exclusively on Peacock.
— Jack Goods (@GoodsOnSports) May 6, 2026
There may have been some underlying reason as to why Tuesday’s games in particular overlapped. All the currently scheduled games beyond Tuesday have 2.5-hour gaps between starts.
Without any real explanation, it’s not surprising fans felt like they were being hosed by some corporate agreement between Adam Silver and the bigwig executives at NBC.
Last month, NBC also drew heat for a glaring error made during its broadcast of Game 2 of the first-round series between the New York Knicks and Atlanta Hawks.
