The last two matchups between LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers and James Harden and the ... [+]
The NBA is drawing its biggest TV ratings of the playoffs during the Western Conference semifinal series between the Los Angeles Lakers and Houston Rockets.
Tuesday’s Game 3, a 112-102 Lakers win, drew an average of 4.65 million viewers to TNT, the NBA said on Thursday. It was the second-most watched game since the league restarted at the end of July, only behind Los Angeles’ win over Houston in Game 2 of the series Sunday night on ABC.
The game drew the largest audience of the night among adults 18-49 and men 18-49. A total 1.85 million men ages 18-49 watched LeBron James scored 36 points, the most-viewed TV program in that demographic since the third episode of “The Last Dance” aired on ESPN on April 26, per the league.
Sunday’s game on ABC was the most viewed NBA game on TV since Christmas day, averaging 5.43 million viewers and a 2.9 rating. It was the first Sunday night postseason game aired on ABC since 2002, per Sports Media Watch. Those numbers still pale in comparison to Saturday’s Kentucky Derby, which averaged 8.3 million viewers.
The ABC game was also slightly lower in overall average viewership than the Oklahoma-Houston college football game on the Sunday night of Labor Day weekend in 2019, but the NBA won out bigtime in the key 18-34, 18-49 and 25-54 demographics, per Sports Media Watch.
Though lower than other sports like the NFL, NBA TV ratings and their recent decline in the U.S. have been highly politicized of late for better and for worse, though they seem to be doing better internationally.
But the starpower of James, Anthony Davis and the Lakers combined with Houston superstars James Harden and Russell Westbrook seems to be moving the needle more than any other series in the NBA playoffs thus far. With Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks knocked out of the playoffs early by the Miami Heat, Los Angeles and Houston is the only game scheduled for Thursday. It will air at an earlier time of 7 p.m. eastern on TNT, which should end during the first half of NBC’s NFL season opener between the Kansas City Chiefs and Houston Texans.
