Prime Video's first postseason telecast has embarrassing outage

The Charlotte Hornets had a crucial possession late in overtime Tuesday night. Thanks to technical difficulties, the viewing audience on Prime
Video didn't get to see it.

During a Hornets timeout with 45 seconds left, the broadcast — Prime's first postseason NBA game — went out, replaced by a card that read "Technical Difficulties." By the time the telecast was back, the Miami Heat had taken a timeout, and viewers missed LaMelo Ball beating the shot clock with a driving layup.

NBA's new broadcast partner had a rocky start

Amazon spent $19.8M for an 11-year deal to broadcast NBA games starting this season, including weekly Friday games, the play-in tournament and select playoff games. That's the most Amazon has spent on any single acquisition, including Whole Foods Market.

The telecasts have been generally well-received, from the entertaining studio show featuring Taylor Rooks, Blake Griffin and Dirk Nowitzki to top-quality play-by-play men Ian Eagle and Kevin Harlan and analysts Stan Van Gundy and Candace Parker. The NBA has claimed viewership is up 86 percent over last season, thanks to new deals with NBC and its own streaming arm, Peacock.

However, the risk of going streaming-only is that the streamers will be tested. Netflix has had problems with its own live events since its infrastructure wasn't accustomed to so many simultaneous live viewers. A Prime spokesperson said the outage was caused by "a hardware failure in our production truck."

Prime Video's technical failure couldn't overshadow the dramatic ending

The NBA and its partners may have been relieved that the game's final 26 seconds featured clutch shots by Miami's Tyler Herro and another clutch layup by Ball, once the telecast was restored. The Hornets escaped with a 127-126 victory.

Still, when LeBron James' only comment on the night's games is a complaint about the tech issues, it's an embarrassment to the league.