Just recently picked it up and have only watched one game and it was perfect, never blacked out or anything. The quality looks to be 720p 30fps If i had to guess. I can live with that over those crappy streams all day.
I used Youtube's tv subscription last year to stream Rockets' playoff games. I don't want to pirate anything. It was about the same price. It'd seem to me like you should be able to get it for less. The only thing I intend to watch are the Rockets games. Is this really the going rate?
Just found this article on the best way to stream the playoffs legitimately or illegitimately: https://www.lifewire.com/live-stream-the-nba-playoffs-4588532 . Per this article, I'm still best off with Youtube TV. Sling TV is cheaper but I can't figure out if I'd get the ABC games or not.
I use Youtube TV to catch all the national games I can since I am in Austin, but then stream through the r/nbastreams from my phone to my apple tv. works great but you have to keep trying until you get a good stream. Also, the nbastreams don't allow you to pause and rewind like youtube tv does which sucks. I will say that I had NBA LP for 4 years but that thing started to suck hard.
fwiw: TV attennas for free ABC in HD is an option, unless you're not within over-the-air broadcast range. You only need standard rabbit-ears now, as FCC regulations mandated TV manufacturers have built-in digital tuners, since 2007 or so. Thus, any HDTV will support cheap, standard antennas now, for receiving ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS etc. Maybe someone else can address the HDTV ATSC Tuner options for computers...pretty sure there are cheap USB options...as long as you get a good broadcast signal. Here's demo of how easy it is to do with TVs nowadays.