NBA: Live Games & Scores
Get on Play Store"NBA: Live Games & Scores" is an official sports game offering live streams, stats, scores, and news. However, the game is plagued with bugs, frequent ads, and requires significant grinding. Despite the potential, the game lacks optimization and can be frustrating to play. It is targeted towards basketball fans seeking a comprehensive NBA experience.
Phone
Android
Mobile Platform
Tablet
Reviews
- stability525 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
The app's stability is severely criticized, with users reporting frequent freezes, crashes, and unresponsiveness across various devices. Many experience interruptions during gameplay, requiring constant restarts, and the overall performance is described as slow and buggy, leading to a frustrating user experience. Despite attempts at troubleshooting, the issues persist, making the app nearly unusable for watching games.
“Aside from other smaller bugs, the app freezes and most often in less than 2 minutes of use, especially when scrolling through play by play.”
“Every single time I go to use this app it freezes after a few interactions.”
“The app literally freezes many times throughout every single game, the closed captions are automatically enabled, it's been like this for like a year and absolutely no fix has been done.”
- monetization279 mentions
- 2 % positive mentions
- 1 % neutral mentions
- 97 % negative mentions
The monetization aspect of the app has drawn significant criticism from users, primarily due to the presence of unskippable ads even for those who have paid for a premium subscription. Many users express frustration over the intrusive nature of these ads, which disrupt the viewing experience, cause streaming issues, and often play at inconvenient times, such as during game highlights or transitions. Overall, the combination of high subscription costs and persistent advertising has led to dissatisfaction among subscribers, who feel they are not receiving the ad-free experience promised.
“Amazing well working app with no ads unless you're watching a game. My favorite thing about this app, though, is that you can watch previous NBA finals.”
“I paid for the games, not the ads!”
“No ads”
“Not to mention it's a paid service with unskippable ads.”
“I paid for an ad-free subscription, but it still displayed ads.”
“Why do we still have to watch ads when we pay so much money for this app?”
- optimization104 mentions
- 13 % positive mentions
- 25 % neutral mentions
- 63 % negative mentions
The optimization of the app has been widely criticized, with users reporting frequent stuttering, buffering, and crashes, particularly when casting to devices like Chromecast. Many have noted that the app performs poorly even on high-speed internet connections, leading to a frustrating viewing experience, especially during live games. Overall, the app is seen as poorly optimized across multiple platforms, with significant room for improvement in performance and usability.
“Not well optimized overall and the video quality is underwhelming but at least more consistent than before.”
“Streaming performance is much better for on-demand games compared to the browser version.”
“Please optimize the performance of this app.”
“The app is horribly optimized for streaming over Chromecast.”
“Constant stuttering and freezing while streaming live games.”
“Poor optimization; the NBA is a billion-dollar company yet their mobile app and desktop player has very poor performance. Needs optimization ASAP.”
- story14 mentions
- 21 % positive mentions
- 57 % neutral mentions
- 21 % negative mentions
Users express significant frustration with the app's story feature, citing issues such as difficulty accessing content, constant app crashes, and poor navigation that often leads to blank screens or irrelevant home pages. The design attempts to mimic popular social media formats but fails to deliver a smooth experience, resulting in users feeling disconnected from the stories they wish to engage with. Overall, the story aspect is seen as poorly executed and a major source of dissatisfaction.
“I click on it and it takes me directly to that story.”
“But while I can watch fine on my phone, my tablet is a whole different story.”
“Whenever I press a news story to read, it restarts the app...and then I do it again and it closes down.”
“When you click on a notification, it never takes you to the item you clicked on, only bringing you to the home screen where you can't find the story it triggered or taking you to a black screen saying 'can't play video'.”
“Most of the story links I click just give me a blank loading page forever, but last year's app only did that occasionally.”
“Whenever I press a news story to read, it restarts the app... and then I do it again and it closes down.”
- graphics11 mentions
- 27 % positive mentions
- 45 % neutral mentions
- 27 % negative mentions
The graphics in the game have received mixed reviews, with some users praising their quality while others criticize misalignment and poor layout, particularly in score displays. The removal of the game timeline graphic has negatively impacted user experience, and issues with casting and buffering have further detracted from the overall visual presentation. Many users are calling for updates to improve the app's graphics and functionality.
“Graphics are perfect”
“I like the graphic of the game”
“Yall keep moaning about the buffering but if that happens just turn down the graphics and it stops.”
“User experience is worse with the upgrade... casting is unstable, graphics misaligned and on top of each other.”
“Graphics are so bad.”
“The layout has been changed and it's not very aesthetically pleasing.”
- gameplay10 mentions
- 30 % positive mentions
- 40 % neutral mentions
- 30 % negative mentions
The gameplay experience is marred by significant technical issues, including frequent app freezes, lag, and slow performance, which detract from the overall enjoyment. Despite these problems, some users appreciate the depth and quality of the gameplay itself, noting it as surprisingly good for a mobile game. However, interruptions from ads and loading times further hinder the experience, leading to frustration among players.
“A dope way to follow the game, and to learn more about the ins and outs of gameplay!”
“At first I thought it wouldn't be good since it's a mobile game, but wow—does it have some good gameplay.”
“Gameplay-wise, it's pretty good.”
“5 app freezes in 4 minutes of gameplay.”
“And you will miss minutes of gameplay waiting for it to load, crash, then reload.”
“However, there is still some noticeable lag during gameplay, which affects the overall experience.”
- humor10 mentions
- 90 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 10 % negative mentions
The humor in the app is described as both amusing and frustrating, with users finding the glitches and odd design choices—like unnecessary decimal stats and widget display issues—hilariously absurd. While some aspects can be annoying, the overall tone suggests that users appreciate the comedic elements, even when they encounter problems, leading to a lighthearted take on their experiences.
“Glitchy scrolling to view the stats of the game, and also a lot of funny weird decisions like, for example, why would you need decimals for some of the stats like plus-minus of players.”
“I was almost mad, but this is literally too hilarious to be mad about.”
“Funny enough, but the feed starts with the beginning of the match and never goes live!”
“Heck, unfunny humor gets annoying fast.”
- music9 mentions
- 22 % positive mentions
- 44 % neutral mentions
- 33 % negative mentions
The music aspect of the game has received largely negative feedback, with users expressing frustration over its intrusive nature, particularly when it interrupts other media playback and during Chromecast use. Many find the background music annoying and suggest that it detracts from the overall experience, advocating for a more curated selection of music or silence during breaks instead of the current jarring audio interruptions. Overall, the music integration is seen as a significant drawback, impacting user enjoyment.
“Give us some music or some other content during breaks; simply going to silence is quite jarring.”
“I just wish they could add much more good old music during the games and the intervals instead of the nuisance noises.”
“The experience is buggy: when I Chromecast and play media on my phone (like music), the TV I'm Chromecast-ing to stops the app. The app crashes during Chromecast. Selecting 'watch from live' starts the stream from the beginning, and I have to scrub to the end to view live. Closed captions are defaulted when Chromecast-ing, even when I haven't selected it. All in all, a frustrating experience traded off by access to all NBA games.”
“Box score structure is still bad and now automatically starts playing highlights or live streaming the game which cannot be turned off, which stops any music or podcasts running.”
“Also, the music during the breaks is annoying; it would be much better if there's no music at all during the pause screen.”
- grinding7 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
Users find the grinding aspect of the game to be tedious and frustrating, particularly due to the repetitive nature of tasks like watching ads and the cumbersome process of opting out of information sharing. The overall sentiment suggests that the grinding mechanics detract from the enjoyment of the game, making it feel more like a chore than entertainment.
“Oh by the way, they also make it as tedious as possible to cancel.”
“It's becoming tedious, I hope they'll fix it.”
“To opt out from sharing my information is a long, tedious and repetitive process.”
- emotional5 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
Users express a strong emotional connection to the app, highlighting both frustration and joy. While some feel heartbroken over technical issues that hinder their access to live NBA games, others convey a sense of excitement and nostalgia, recalling how the app previously made them feel immersed in the game experience. Overall, the emotional responses range from disappointment to elation, reflecting the deep attachment fans have to their sports viewing experience.
“This is the best app ever and I do it on tablets. All of the emotions that I felt just made me feel like I'm lit.”
“I'm in Nigeria, the former interface made me feel like I was at the TD Garden when I watch Celtics.”
“Being a resident of India, this is the only way I can access live NBA games, but if such an issue is not resolved immediately, it's very heartbreaking for NBA fans like us.”
