Amazon is the biggest loser of the NBA Play-In Tournament so far

The NBA Play-In Tournament is underway with Charlotte and Portland scoring victories on Tuesday night. The Hornets advanced to a date with the 76ers-Magic loser for the eighth seed in the East while Portland locked in a date with San Antonio as the West's seventh seed.

Both of those games aired on Amazon Prime last night as part of the league's new television contracts, which granted the streamer exclusive rights to the Play-In. The fan experience during the games was not optimal, however, as broadcast issues that have plagued the Prime experience throughout the season reared their ugly head at the worst time.

Several fans noted on social media that the audio for the broadcast was several seconds of the video, which has been a recurring issue on Prime broadcasts all season. That kind of bad sync is something that should have been fixed by now, but it was far from the only issue Amazon dealt with on the evening.

Things got worse towards the end of the Heat-Hornets game, which went into overtime and was a tight contest at the end. Amazon's video stream was unstable towards the end of the extra session and briefly cut out, leaving fans watching a do-or-die game staring at a technical difficulties screen.

To make matters worse, once the feed returned the scorebook displayed inaccurate information. One astute user on Twitter noted that the broadcast had credited Miami with having a timeout remaining when they, in fact, did not.

To their credit, Amazon does seem to be aware of the issues and focused on fixing them.

Amazon needs to fix its broadcast issues fast

The fact that Amazon had technical issues with its game broadcast during a postseason game is problematic. The NBA made a controversial choice to remove first round games from local broadcasters with this new television contract, so if Prime's issues flare up during a first round game fans of the teams involved won't have an alternative to get a better experience.

It is a shame to see seemingly simple issues fail to be addressed, especially when the streamer puts serious care into its actual coverage of the product. Amazon's studio show has drawn rave reviews throughout the year with analysts who care deeply about basketball and want to let viewers in on things to make them understand the game more.

Live production of any sporting event is not easy, particularly when you are relying on an internet stream to distribute games, but it is no excuse when you paid billions of dollars for the exclusive rights to key matchups. Fans who pay for the service have the expectation of being able to at least watch a game without technical issues, which is an area that Amazon failed in on Tuesday.

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