One the same day and date as their first Christmas Day meeting, the Heat and Lakers again drew some of the biggest NBA regular season ratings in years.
Miami’s 96-80 win over the Lakers earned a 7.3 overnight rating on ABC Christmas Day, ESPN confirmed to Sports Media Watch, up 46% from last year’s comparable game (CLE/LAL: 5.0), and up 22% from 2008 (BOS/LAL: 6.0).
The 7.3 overnight is the highest for any regular season NBA game since Heat/Lakers on Christmas Day 2004 (8.0). That game finished as the highest rated NBA regular season game since 1998.
Saturday’s game was not the only big Christmas Day draw. Earlier in the day, Celtics/Magic drew a hefty 5.3 overnight, up 40% from the same game last year (BOS/ORL: 3.8), and up 47% from 2008 (SAS/PHX: 3.6).
The 5.3 is a bigger overnight than last year’s main Christmas Day game between the Cavaliers and Lakers.
On ESPN, Bulls/Knicks drew a 2.7 overnight, up 35% from last year (MIA/NYK: 2.0), ad up 80% from two years ago (NOH/ORL: 1.5).
Overnights for Nuggets/Thunder and Blazers/Warriors were not immediately available.
(twitter.com/gusramsey, confirmed by ESPN)
