How To Watch Olympic 3 on 3 Basketball

Olympic Men’s and Women’s 3-on-3 Basketball begins Friday, July 23, 2021, with pool play starting at 9:15 pm ET. This article will explain how to watch every Olympic 3-on-3 Basketball game at the Tokyo Olympics, even if you don’t have cable. We also include a link to the full Olympic 3-on-3 Basketball TV schedule so you know when and where to watch every game. For other Olympic events aside from 3-on-3 Basketball, see our guide on how to watch the Olympics in 2021.

How To Watch Olympic 3-on-3 Basketball: All Olympic 3-on-3 Basketball games (both Men’s and Women’s 3-on-3 Basketball) will stream live on the NBC Sports App. game coverage can be streamed live and watched on-demand with FuboTV (7-day free trial) or Hulu Live TV (7-day free trial). Using a free trial from each will allow you to watch every Olympic 3-on-3 Basketball game for free! These services will also allow you to log into the NBC Sports apps to watch all 3-on-3 Basketball games.

How Olympic 3-on-3 Basketball is Played

This year’s Tokyo Olympics will feature 3-on-3 basketball. The game is played on a half-court and resembles a neighborhood pickup game. There is a semi-circular area similar to a 3-point line in traditional basketball where teams have to take the ball to or “clear” after all possession changes. Baskets scored within the semi-circle are worth 1 point, and those scored from outside the sem-circle are worth 2 points. The winner is the first team to get to 21 points or the team with the most points after 10 minutes.

Olympic 3-on-3 basketball will see 8 men and women teams compete for gold in this year’s Tokyo Olympics. The teams that qualified for the Summer Games are:

• Men’s teams: Belgium, China, Japan, Latvia, Netherlands, Poland, Russian Olympic Committee, Serbia
• Women’s teams: China, France, Italy, Japan, Mongolia, Romania, Russian Olympic Committee, United States

To determine which counties men and women will take home medals, teams will play the other 7 teams in pool play. After the pool play, the top two teams advance to the semifinals, while the next four teams will play in a quarterfinals round. The two winners of the quarterfinals will play the top seeds in the semifinals. Those semifinal winners will play for gold, while the losers of the semifinals will compete for bronze.

Watch 3-on-3 Basketball on The NBC Sports App

All 3-on-3 Basketball games air on the NBC Sports app. Thankfully you can log into the NBC Sports App using your fuboTV or Hulu Live TV credentials and watch those games. NBC Sports app will also air replays of past games and even carry games scheduled to air on NBC. The steps to use the NBC Sports App are below:

1. Use a Free Trial to a Service that carries NBC Sports. Those are:
   • FuboTV – offers a 1-week free trial.
   • Hulu Live TV – Offers a 1-week free trial.
   • DIRECTV STREAM – Has a 5-Day free trial.
   • YouTube TV –  offers a 1-week free trial.
2. Go to the channel store or app store on your device. On Roku, it’s called the “Channel Store.” But you can download the NBC Sports app on Apple TV, Android TV, Roku, Amazon FireTV, and more.
3. Search for the NBC Sports app
4. Add the NBC Sports app to your device and then open it. 
5. Go to “Browse” on the menu to the left of the screen. Under “All Networks,” navigate to the “NBC Sports App” and press the OK button on your remote.
6. Using a computer or mobile web browser, you go to https://www.nbcsports.com/activate.
7. You will then be asked for a TV provider and a username/password. If you subscribe to fuboTV, select “fuboTV,” then enter your login and password for Hulu.
8. Once you sign in, your TV screen will refresh after a minute or so. You should now have access to all 3-on-3 Basketball games through the app. Just got to “Browse”, then ” 3-on-3 Basketball ,” and scroll down to the “Live” and “Replays” section depending on whether you want to watch live or past games.

Olympic 3-on-3 Basketball TV Schedule

Olympic Men’s and Women’s 3-on-3 Basketball will have multiple games daily. All games are available to watch in the NBC Sports App. Your account credentials from these services will also allow you to log into the App to watch all Olympic 3-on-3 Basketball games, even games not carried on a TV network:

• FuboTV – offers a 1-week free trial.
• Hulu Live TV – Offers a 1-week free trial.
• DIRECTV STREAM – Has a 5-Day free trial.
• YouTube TV –  offers a 1-week free trial.

The schedules below show the U.S. Eastern times for the live game. You can use the free trials above to unlock the NBC Sports app and watch the games live. However, if the games are too early for you to watch live, they will also be available on-demand through the NBC Sports app.

• Friday, July 23 | 9:15 pm ET – Men and Woman’s Pool Play begins and continues daily into Tuesday, July 27th
• Tuesday, July 27 | 7:30 a.m. ET – Men’s and Woman’s Quarterfinals
• Wednesday, July 28 | 4 a.m. ET – Men’s and Woman’s Semifinals
• Wednesday, July 28 | 7:45 a.m. ET – Men’s and Woman’s Medal Games Begin

Team USA 3-on-3 Basketball Schedule

While the US Men’s team didn’t qualify for the Olympics The U.S Women’s team is expected to go far this year. Below is the schedule for Team USA Women’s 3-on-3 Basketball pool play.

• Saturday, July 24, 4:55 a.m. ET: USA vs. France
• Saturday, July 24, 8 a.m. ET: USA vs. Mongolia
• Sunday, July 25, 4:30 a.m. ET: USA vs. Romania
• Sunday, July 25, 8:25 a.m. ET: USA vs. Russia
• Monday, July 26, 4:55 a.m. ET: USA vs. Italy
• Monday, July 26, 8 a.m. ET: USA vs. China
• Tuesday, July 27, 12:30 a.m. ET: USA vs. Japan

Best Streaming Services for Olympic 3-on-3 Basketball

In order to watch every Olympic 3-on-3 Basketball game, you can use any live streaming service below as they have all channels that will air the Olympics and will allow you to log into the NBC Sports App to watch every 3-on-3 Basketball game. We’ve summarized those services below, or you can check any of the following guides for information on watching a specific channel without cable.

Below is a summary of each live TV streaming service offering all three of those channels.

FuboTV

FuboTV is an excellent service to watch Olympic 3-on-3 Basketball as it carries NBCSN, USA Network, and CNBC in its Pro Plan along with over 80 other channels for $74.99 (after a 7-day free trial). The FuboTV app is available on major platforms, including Apple TV, AndroidTV, Roku, and Amazon FireTV. FuboTV’s standard plan includes the following:

• over 100 live channels found on cable including NBCSN, CNBC, and USA
• live local NBC, FOX, and CBS in many markets
• a cloud DVR with 30 hours of storage
• watch on two screens at the same time

You can sign up for a 1-week free trial or check out our review of FuboTV for more details.

Hulu

You can watch every Olympic 3-on-3 Basketball game on Hulu Live TV. The service carries NBCSN, CNBC, and USA along with many other channels. Hulu is most known for its vast on-demand streaming library. However, you can also subscribe to Hulu’s Live TV service for $69.99 a month. That price includes Hulu on-demand, making it one of the best live TV streaming services available. The service includes the following features:

• Unlimited cloud DVR storage. (Recordings save for 9 months)
• Watch on two screens at once. (Upgrades available)
• Comes with six customizable profiles
• Includes entire Hulu streaming library

Hulu supports Roku, Amazon Fire TV, iOS, Android and more. Check out our full review of Hulu Live TV for more details.

Check out Hulu + Live TV here.

DIRECTV STREAM

You can watch every Olympic 3-on-3 Basketball game on DIRECTV STREAM. The service provides NBCSN, CNBC, and USA Network in its “Entertainment” channel plan for $74.99 per month. The service provides a 5-day free trial when signing up. AT&T provides the following features in all it’s channel plans:

• watch 20 streams simultaneously per subscription 
• a cloud-based DVR
• channels like NBCSN, CNBC, USA, and more
• supported on Apple TV, Android TV, Roku, Amazon FireTV, and more

You can check out everything this service offers by taking advantage of their online offer or read about it in our DIRECTV STREAM review.

YouTube TV

YouTube TV also offers NBCSN, CNBC, USA, and more with limitless storage space for recording your shows. Your library of recorded shows can be streamed anywhere. The base package costs $72.99 a month.

A subscription to YouTube TV provides:

• access to NBCSN, CNBC, USA, and over 70 other channels
• unlimited cloud DVR storage
• stream on three devices at once
• YouTube TV supports Android, iOS, Apple TV, Fire TV, Chromecast, and more. The YouTube TV app has also returned to Roku devices after settling a dispute between the two companies. 
• Includes YouTube TV on-demand

Check our review of YouTube TV for more details. They also offer a 1-week free trial.