WATCH Heat vs. Bulls Live Stream Online: NBA 2016 Top Conference Rivals & Playoff Rankings

Basketball's back for the official 2015-2016 NBA season, so get ready, MstarsNews readers!

The Miami Heat battle it out on the court against the Chicago Bulls in Week 19 of the regular season on Friday, March 11 at 8:00 p.m. EST from the United Center in Illinois. Read on to see where fans can watch and listen to a live stream of the highly-anticipated Friday evening basketball game online and catch up-to-date feeds and coverage on highlight plays and scores.

Before heading into the playoff season, Miami maintains a rather impressive top spot in Marc Stein's official NBA power rankings for ESPN.com, while Chicago falls just a bit behind (out of a total 30 teams):

Heat (8): "There isn't enough time left in the season for Hassan Whiteside to qualify for the Sixth Man Award race... which is a good thing for the competition when he's averaging 15.5 PPG, 13.1 RPG and 3.9 BPG in 13 games as a reserve. Joe Johnson, meanwhile, is off to a rather efficient start as a Heater, ringing up 24 points in his second game after one such output in 57 games as a Net."

Record: 37-27 (4th in Eastern Conference).

Bulls (16): "Chicago's D, as covered here last week, has indeed been in decline for two months now, but there's also no dismissing the severity of the Bulls' recent injury woes. They've gone 4-8 this season without Jimmy Butler and something closer to what we expected from this team (27-22) with the East's top scorer since Jan. 1; Butler (24.6 PPG) and DeMar DeRozan (24.0 PPG) are the leaders in that span."     

Record: 32-31 (9th in Eastern Conference).

Tonight's monumental game will be broadcasted live on your local NBAt sports channel and WGN or SUN.

For fans who want to try out a free live stream (which may mean downloading a torrent), click here. Also try this or another option.

Also check out NBA TV for more schedules and game updates.

ESPN, ESPN Scoreboard, and NBA.com are all good sources for up-to-date game coverage and feeds.

More radio listening options for Heat and Bulls.

Official NHL team websites: Heat and Bulls.

Enjoy the exciting b-ball game from Chicago this evening, and always stick with MstarsNews for additional NBA gameday coverage this weekend. Which top conference rival will snag the big win tonight?