With two Games 7 decided Sunday, the schedule is set for both the Eastern and Western Conference finals. The West gets underway first on Tuesday as the Portland Trail Blazers visit the Golden State Warriors in Game 1. The two teams last met in the postseason in the first round of the 2017 playoffs, with the Warriors sweeping the Blazers. On Wednesday, the Toronto Raptors go to Milwaukee to tip off the East finals against the Bucks. Like the Blazers and Warriors, those two teams also last met in the playoffs in 2017, with Toronto winning in six games.<doc-sep>After the long, gruelling 2019 NBA season, we're finally there. The Champions Golden State Warriors and debutants Toronto Raptors are battling out an absolute classic of an NBA finals. The action certainly so far hasn't disappointed, with the series on a knife-edge. It's time to enjoy the action and we’re here to help you get an NBA playoffs Finals live stream of every game. NBA playoffs - when and where? The 2019 NBA Playoffs began on Saturday, April 13 and now the top two teams across the country - the Toronto Raptors and Golden State Warriors - are battling things out in a seven-game series. The NBA finals begin on May 30, with game seven scheduled for June 17 if required. We have now moved onto the NBA Finals where the Golden State Warriors (can they really be stopped?) have already dispatched the Portland Trail Blazers and the Toronto Raptors overcame the Milwaukee Bucks. Whether your favorite team is competing in the Western or Eastern Conference, we’ll show you how to watch a live stream of every game in the 2019 NBA Playoffs online so you don’t miss a single basket this postseason. Baseball fan? You should also check out our MLB live stream guide How to watch the 2019 NBA Playoffs online from outside your country If you live in the US or UK and want to know how to catch a 2019 NBA Playoffs live stream, then keep scrolling and we’ll tell you your best viewing options. But if you can't watch because you're not in your home country and so your coverage is geo-blocked then we can suggest a clever alternative (and no, it doesn’t involve finding some dodgy feed on Reddit). Using a VPN - or Virtual Private Network - you can change the IP address to one in a different state or country which does have the stream so that you can watch the 2019 NBA Playoffs games from anywhere in the world. The process is very straightforward… We've tested all of the major VPN services and we rate ExpressVPN as the absolute best. It's compatible with all of your devices, supports most streaming services and ranks amongst the fastest. You can even install it on devices like an Amazon Fire TV Stick, Apple TV, Xbox and PlayStation. So for a one-stop shop, you can't go wrong with Express - but there are more fantastic VPN options out there as well: 1. Express VPN (comes with a 30 day money back guarantee) This is the #1 rated best VPN in the world right now. You can watch on many devices at once including Smart TVs, Fire TV Stick, PC, Mac, iPhone, Android phone, iPads, tablets etc. You can try it out for a month for free and, if you like it, get 15 months for the price of 12. Check out Express VPN 2. IPVanish: supports up to 10 devices, so great on the go 3. NordVPN: SmartPlay tech makes NordVPN a great, affordable choice for streaming Read more: Our guide to the best VPN service of 2019 From there, you simply open the VPN app, hit 'choose location' and select the appropriate location - it's super easy to do. Choose any country showing a Playoffs live stream and watch as if you were in that country. Watch the NBA playoffs on TV in the US Avoid the NBA blackout with a VPN If you live in the US and don’t want to pay for local cable television just to watch your local franchise, catching those NBA games live is made very difficult for you. Because the NBA agrees to exclusive rights for those stations, even streaming services won’t show live games as the action happens. You have to settle to watch the game when it’s replayed. But using a VPN is a handy way around this. Grab one of our recommend VPNs above, log in and connect to a server outside the blackout region and you're ready to watch some basketball. This was you can watch all games in the NBA Playoffs as they happen live from anywhere in the world. Unfortunately the NBA’s own streaming service (the League Pass) won’t be showing either the NBA Playoffs or the Finals live online as all of these games will be nationally televised. If you’re already a League Pass subscriber though, you will still be able to watch these games in the service’s archives, though they won’t be available until three hours after they air on TV. If you’re looking to watch the NBA Playoffs live on TV however, then you’ll need to narrow down which channels are showing which conference’s games and lucky for you, we can help you with that. If your favorite team is playing in the Western Conference Finals, then ESPN is your only choice to watch those games as the network has the exclusive rights to broadcast the Western Conference Finals on TV. On the other hand, if your franchise is playing in the Eastern Conference Finals, then TNT is your only option as the network has secured the rights to broadcast those games. The NBA’s own network, NBA TV will air some first round games on TV, so if you don’t want to miss a single minute of the NBA Playoffs, you’ll need a cable package or streaming service with access to NBA TV. Finally, for the 17th consecutive year, ABC has the sole rights to broadcast the NBA Finals. If you want to watch the finals, you’ll have to do so on ABC. We wish watching the NBA Playoffs was easier on TV but you can get around network exclusivity deals by opting for a streaming service that gives you access to every channel showing the playoffs. Hulu with Live TV $44.99 per month - Hulu with Live TV gives you access to ESPN, TNT and ABC in most markets but the service doesn't include NBA TV. The service supports a wide variety of streaming devices and even includes its own Hulu Originals in case you want a break from watching sports. Playstation Vue starting at $44.99 per month - Playstation Vue has four plans: Access, Core, Elite and Ultra but you'll need to opt for the Core plan at $49.99 per month to watch sports. The service's base plan gives you access to ESPN, TNT and ABC in most markets but you'll need to check to see if the plan you choose has NBA TV. There is also a 5-day free trial available. DirecTV Now $50 per month - DirecTV Now gives you access to ESPN, TNT and ABC in most markets but only some plans offer NBA TV. You can stream on up to three screens simultaneously and with the DirecTV Now app you can watch live TV on the go. There are also a number of add-ons available for premium channels such as HBO, Starz and Cinemax. New customers can take advantage of a 7-day trial but you'll have to purchase on of DirecTV Now's packages first. Sling TV starting at $15 per month - Sling TV's Sling Orange or Sling Blue packages each cost $15 or you can combine them for $25 per month. However, each package contains different channels so make sure the one you choose has the channels you want to watch. The company is currently running a promotion where new users can get 40% off. Sling TV gives you access to ESPN, TNT and ABC in limited markets with NBA TV available as an add-on. fuboTV $44.99 for the first month - fuboTV doesn't include ESPN but you do get access to TNT, NBA TV and ABC in most markets. The service also includes Cloud DVR so you can record games to watch them later and if you forget to record a game, the company's 3-day replay allows you to replay nearly any game, show or movie that aired in the last three days. FuboTV even offers a free 7-day trial so you can test out the service. YouTube TV $49.99 per month - YouTube TV gives you access to ESPN, TNT, NBA TV and ABC in most markets. The service also offers NBA League Pass.<doc-sep>HOUSTON –– In every great playoff run, there are games swayed by improbable actors—role players who, in some critical moment, became something beyond themselves. There is a Corey Brewer Game and a Leon Powe Game; a Nick Young Game and a Norris Cole Game. For all the discussion of which stars deliver and which do not, the fate of a season can easily come down to whether a team’s eighth man strung together play after play in the second quarter. All it takes is one player with the right opportunity and the perfect skill set. Somehow, the Warriors turned in an entire team’s worth of those performances on a single night to eliminate the Rockets, 118-113, and punch their ticket to the Western Conference finals. Kevin Durant, the league’s best player, wasn’t in the lineup. He wasn’t even in the state. With no real means to replace him outright, Golden State did what made them champions before Durant ever arrived: share the ball, spread the wealth and empower one another. Most role players do their best work at home, backed by an encouraging crowd and anchored by a more consistent routine. But the Warriors’ act travels. This closeout game marks the 21st consecutive series in which Golden State won a game on the road—just one of the many micro trends and records that sets their reign apart. “They come in here down a man, but the way they shot the ball and the way they played—they're smart,” Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni said. “And that's why they've won rings. We've gotta get there somehow.” Technically, the Warriors were down two men; not only did Steve Kerr have to find a way to fill the 45 minutes a game Durant had averaged when he was healthy (and somehow MacGyver the production therein), but also continue to plug the gap left by an injured DeMarcus Cousins. Even the best team in the league can only spring so many leaks, though in this case the Warriors proved especially buoyant. Golden State started Andrew Bogut, a third-string center who had logged 10 total minutes in this series. In Game 6, he played 12—and helped make just enough plays (against just the right matchup) for the Warriors to win his minutes. Given his role, Kevon Looney played an essentially perfect game. The gamble inherent to the Rockets’ mode of defense was the idea that if they trapped Stephen Curry, a workaday center like Looney wouldn’t be able to make the plays Golden State needed. This proved false. When the moment came, there was Looney making reads from the middle of the floor, a la Draymond Green. There he was shuffling his feet on a switch, or pulling down a one-armed rebound, or fighting his way to the rim on a broken play. “I’m so proud of Kevon,” Thompson said. “What he's been through in his young career: having hip surgery, having doubt about his ability to get on the floor, and now to be in the playoffs winning us basketball games and being a tremendous role player. It's incredible. It's a testament to his work ethic and his patience … I can’t sing his praises enough. He was a real difference-maker in this series.” This is more than throwaway flattery from a teammate. Houston and Golden State proved such an even match in this series that every game was decided by a few loose balls or a few offensive rebounds. For a player of his stature, Looney came up with a disproportionate number of those plays—a triumph of self-awareness and will. Looney wasn’t alone. “Shaun Livingston,” Thompson said. “What a game for him.” The value in having Livingston isn’t the big play, but the quiet one. It’s calming down a possession on the rails to hit a short, turnaround jumper. It’s screening and then re-screening so that Curry can get just the matchup he needs. There were times in this series when Livingston had seemed in over his head—a step slow for what the Warriors needed from him. Game 6 was not one of those occasions. His 11 points were more than Houston got from Eric Gordon, Clint Capela or Austin Rivers. Out of the necessity of the moment—and in the coaching equivalent of a heat check—Kerr threw Quinn Cook and Jordan Bell into the fire for their first meaningful minutes of the series in one of the most important games of the Warriors’ season. Both improbably delivered. It wasn’t Cook’s scoring—his best NBA skill—that kept him afloat, but his patient playmaking from within the teeth of the defense. And after spending the bulk of his career to this point leaving his feet at inopportune times, Bell stuck James Harden on the perimeter without fouling and blocked two of the superstar guard’s layups when roving across the lane in help. “He made a bunch of huge plays on both ends of the floor,” Curry said of Bell. “And we needed every bit of it.” In the middle of it all was Andre Iguodala, who spent his night guarding Harden and Chris Paul, while saving just enough energy to deliver 17 of the game’s biggest points. “That game was probably not winnable without Andre’s contributions,” Kerr conceded. In an ultimately doomed effort to keep Curry and Thompson under wraps, the Rockets rotated away from Iguodala and banked on him to miss open shots. Iguodala, after all, had made just one three-pointer in Games 4 and 5 combined. In Game 6, he knocked down five—every one a jab at the confidence of Houston’s defense. After the game, the Warriors bounded down the hallway in celebration of one of their most satisfying wins yet. Cousins was jubilant. Curry came in screaming. Green waited at the door of the locker room to embrace every teammate. Straggling behind was Iguodala, who had a few high fives left in him and not much else. “I’m f***ing tired,” Iguodala said. In the absence of Durant, more had been asked of him—not only more minutes, points and steals than in any other regulation game in this series, but more rotations. More resets to stage the offense. More box-outs and more floor burns. Every Warrior had to scale up, and when Curry picked up three early fouls and went scoreless in the first half, there was nothing to do but ask everyone to do more. Together, they bought time. This wasn’t exactly a polished endeavor, but it was the Warriors at their extra-pass best—one tiny advantage rolled into another and another until the breakthrough came. When Curry erupted for 33 points in the second half, part of the reason his points came so freely was because his teammates had played the first half to a draw. There is no great choice in attempting to guard the Warriors. Houston went after Curry at the point of attack, and when Thompson scorched the Rockets with three after three, made efforts to deny him. The weight of the series was shifted, at every turn, to those in the background. “You say: make the other guys beat you,” Paul said. “They damn sure did that.”<doc-sep>
Stephen Curry (33 points in the second half) and Klay Thompson (27 points) set the tone for the Warriors as they earned a hard-fought road win to advance to the Western Conference Finals for the fifth-straight year. For the second consecutive season and the fourth time in five years, the Golden State Warriors have eliminated the Houston Rockets from the NBA Playoffs. Thanks to the shooting of Klay Thompson (7-13 3FG) and a big second half from Stephen Curry (33 points), the Warriors earned a five-point Game 6 win to advance to the Western Conference Finals for a fifth consecutive year. Golden State now awaits the winner of Game 7 between the Denver Nuggets and Portland Trail Blazers Here are some takeaways from the Warriors' series-clinching win. Curry heats up in the clutch Steph Curry stepped up to the plate and knocked it out of the park in Game 5 when Kevin Durant went down. Many expected him to continue and carry that form over into Game 6 in Houston, but the two-time MVP came out of the gate cold. Foul trouble in the first half along with tough Houston defence saw Curry enter the main break with zero points to his name. But it was a tale of two halves as Curry came out scorching in the second half, mainly in the fourth quarter when the game was up for grabs. Curry got his game going with a few layups and floaters and then proceeded to hit dagger after dagger, dropping 23 points in the quarter. Curry ended the game with 33 points on 9-for-20 shooting, going 4-for-11 from three and knocking down a perfect 11-for-11 from the free throw line. With all of his points coming in the second half, he set a new postseason career-high point for points in the second half. With a banged-up left hand, Curry showed he can light up in the blink of an eye and steal a key win even when he's had an incredibly rough start. Game 6 Klay In Game 6 of the 2016 Western Conference Finals, Klay Thompson sank an NBA-record 11 3-pointers. In Game 6 of the 2018 Western Conference Finals, Klay Thompson sank nine 3-pointers. In Game 6 of this year's Western Conference Semis, Thompson sank seven of his 13 3-point attempts - including a late-game dagger - to finish with 27 points. big time bucket 💦 pic.twitter.com/yaWkGiw2RL - Golden State Warriors (@warriors) May 11, 2019 Thompson set the tone early on, scoring 21 points in the first half after shooting 5-for-9 from beyond the arc. His first-half performance was especially important considering Stephen Curry was held scoreless and the rest of the team shot 2-for-9 from beyond the arc With Kevin Durant and DeMarcus Cousins sidelined and Curry having an uncharacteristically poor night, Thompson did exactly what was needed to keep Golden State in the game as it entered the half knotted up at 57. Had it not been for Thompson's first-half exploits, the Warriors deficit might have been far too large to overcome. Often the forgotten one, it's moments like these where we're reminded just how good - and valuable - Thompson is to this team. It just so happens to occur in Game 6s. Fouls, fouls, fouls Everything was on the line in a gruelling Game 6 battle and both teams threw everything they had at one another. The hot action, however, was met with plenty of whistles with big names players on both sides finding themselves in foul trouble. Steph Curry picked up an early two fouls in the opening quarter and found his way to the bench while Draymond Green picked up his fourth midway through the third. For the Rockets it was big man Clint Capela who struggled with foul trouble as he picked up his fourth in the third. A total of 30 fouls were called throughout the contest as the two teams continued to trade barbs. As the Warriors enter the Western Conference Finals with the injured Kevin Durant's status remaining uncertain, this team must look to limit its fouling because the rotation has become limited.