Watch Golden State Warriors Vs. Toronto Raptors Live Stream: NBA Finals Game 1, Start Time, Preview
The Golden State Warriors, despite injuries to a pair of top players and an opening round playoff scare against the Los Angeles Clippers, return to the NBA Finals for the fifth straight season, starting on Thursday night when the Warriors open their quest for a rare “three-peat” as NBA champions. If they pull it off, they will become only the sixth team in NBA history to win three titles in a row, according to NBA.com.
This time, they face a new challenger: the Toronto Raptors. For the first time in their current run of five consecutive Finals appearances, Golden State will not square off against the Cleveland Cavaliers. Nor do they have the home-court advantage in the series, traveling to Canada for Game 1, which will live stream from Toronto.
To find out how to watch a live stream of the Golden State Warriors vs. Toronto Raptors opening game of their 2018-2019 NBA Finals, see the streaming information at the bottom of this article. The action gets underway at 9 p.m. ET, 6 p.m. PT, and 8 p.m. CT at the 19,800-seat Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on Thursday, May 30.
In the United Kingdom, tipoff time for the Warriors-Raptors NBA Finals Game 1 will be 2 a.m., British Summer Time, on Friday morning, May 31, while in Australia the game tips off on Friday at 11 a.m. Eastern Australia Standard Time, 9 a.m. Western.
The Finals berth is a first for Toronto, who joined the NBA as an expansion team in 1995, and had never advanced as far as the Eastern Conference finals until this season, per Basketball Reference. Thursday’s game will be the first NBA Finals game ever played in Canada in the 69-year history of the league.
In fact, the matchup will be the first championship game in any of the four major U.S. sports leagues to be played in Canada since 2011, when the NHL’s Vancouver Canucks played in, and lost, the Stanley Cup Finals against the Boston Bruins.
“Different energy, different city, different views, everything should prepare us to lock in, understanding that we have a prime opportunity to start off this Finals series on the road and get a win and set the tone for how it’s going to be,” Warriors two-time NBA MVP guard Stephen Curry told NBA.com.
While Kevin Durant has been ruled out for the Warriors, center Demarcus Cousins has been declared healthy and should return to the floor for Game 1, The San Francisco Chronicle reported.
To watch the Golden State Warriors vs. Toronto Raptors NBA Finals Game 1 clash live stream online from Canada, log in to ESPN3, the online-only streaming service offered by the sports broadcasting giant ESPN. ESPN3 is free of charge to anyone with login credentials from a cable or satellite television provider, or internet service provider and is available through the ESPN and WatchESPN apps for mobile devices, as well as on set-top streaming boxes, such as the Apple TV, Roku, and Amazon Fire.
Alternatively, fans with login credentials to a cable, satellite, or online TV streaming package provider will be able to watch the game for free via the ABC TV site online.
But there is a way to watch the Golden State Warriors vs. Toronto Raptors game stream live for free and without a cable subscription. Fans can sign up for a free trial of an internet streaming TV package, such as DirecTV Now, Sling TV, or YouTube TV. Those services require credit card information and subscription fees, but each offers a seven-day free trial, and that means during the week-long time frame, fans can stream the Warriors vs. Raptors game — and all other live NBA Finals games in that period — for free.
To watch the Golden State Warriors vs. Toronto Raptors matchup in the United Kingdom, viewers can tune into Sky Sports Arena. For a complete list of broadcast and live streaming sources in dozens of other countries around the globe, see the listings at the official NBA website.
