If you were hoping to see the final minute of overtime during the Miami Heat-Charlotte Hornets game Tuesday night, you probably didn’t because the broadcast feed went out at a crucial time. Viewers were watching a tense Play-In Tournament game when the screen went dark. And just like “The Sopranos” finale, there was mass confusion and anger until a new image popped up.
“Technical difficulties,” the message read on the screen.
The feed went out with the Hornets up 123-120 with 48.1 seconds left and didn’t return until 107 seconds later.
Viewers got the game back with 28 seconds left and the Hornets up 5 points, but they missed crucial time, including a LaMelo Ball bucket that boosted Charlotte’s lead from 3 to 5 points. The Hornets ended up winning the game 127-126 after Ball’s layup with 4.8 seconds left, a play viewers were able to see.
It was a rough look for Amazon in its first season as the NBA’s broadcast partner, and it came in its biggest moment as it broadcast its most important game yet.
Amazon is at the start of an 11-year deal with the league that was signed as part of its $76 billion media rights agreement that kicked in this fall. It has drawn positive reviews for its game broadcasts — Ian Eagle and Stan Van Gundy were in the middle of another strong call during this Play-In game — and for its standout studio crew. But the blackout in the middle of the first postseason game Amazon has handled for the league will leave a stain.
That was not the only mistake the Prime broadcast made down the stretch.
The NBA’s national TV deal with Prime runs through the 2035-36 season.
Tell me the game didn’t just cut off?!!? Am I trippin?? WTH 🤦🏾♂️
— LeBron James (@KingJames) April 15, 2026
Not only did Amazon have “Technical Difficulties” at the end of a tightly contested play-in game that was in OT, but they also screwed up the graphics and showed Miami with a timeout remaining when they didn’t actually have any.
Amateur hour all around. pic.twitter.com/RqNvNkRZPK
— AdamInHTownTX (@AdamInHTownTX) April 15, 2026
Prime Video’s broadcast went off the air for nearly two full minutes during overtime in Heat-Hornets. pic.twitter.com/oStTMMprNm
— Sports TV News & Updates (@TVSportsUpdates) April 15, 2026
Analysis
“Tell me the game didn’t just cut off?!!? Am I trippin?? WTH” — LeBron James, 10:16 p.m. ET
In that moment, we were all LeBron, and LeBron was just another fan with Amazon Prime Video, in disbelief that, in the network’s very first NBA postseason game ever, it would have a glitch this bad.
After a very successful inaugural regular season of NBA coverage for Amazon Prime Video — including Ian Eagle’s top-notch play-by-play, a fun studio show featuring multiple legends, a clean score bug — Prime Video stumbled when it mattered most:
“Technical Difficulties”
That was on the blue screen splashed across millions of TVs tuned in to Prime Video for the opening Play-In game between the Heat and Hornets, which had been a thrilling game and an ideal way to start Prime Video’s exclusive four-game Play-In broadcasts.
With 48.1 seconds to go in overtime and the Hornets up 3, the one thing a sports TV network dreads, the one thing that can’t happen, the one thing that can derail an otherwise great telecast:
There’s no game on the TV.
Instead, this:
(Law Murray / The Athletic)
And so, fans sat there, waiting, wondering what was happening in the game. Our group Slack that powers our Play-In live blog was erupting. Colleagues in the arena were feeding those of us watching (or not watching) on Prime Video at home. It was nearly two minutes, but to fans tuning in, it was this bizarre liminal state. (And for folks working on the Amazon Prime Video production, it might have felt like two years.)
Finally, with a little under 30 seconds to go, the broadcast blinked back on, with the Hornets up 5. We all got to see the Tyler Herro 3, the steal, the 3-shot foul, the game-winning layup by LaMelo Ball and the game-sealing block at the rim on Davion Mitchell’s last-second sprint to try to win it.
So, it could have been worse: We could have missed all that, in addition to the action that preceded it. But that doesn’t mean it wasn’t an inauspicious start for Amazon Prime Video with NBA postseason basketball.
You can get a lot of things wrong in a sports TV broadcast, but the cardinal rule is: Fans have to be able to see the game. — Dan Shanoff