Opposite the NFL Draft, viewership for the NBA Playoffs was a mixed bag on Thursday night.
Game 2 of the Blazers/Spurs second round NBA playoff series earned 3.4 million viewers on ESPN2 Thursday night, down 28% from Clippers/Spurs Game 2 in 2012 (4.7M). Earlier in the night, Nets/Heat Game 2 drew just over 3.0 million, down 32% from Heat/Pacers in 2012 (4.5M). There were no games on the comparable night last year.
Thursday’s games rank as the most-viewed NBA telecasts ever on ESPN2 (61 regular season and playoff games dating back to 2002-03). The previous high was just under 3.0 million for a Thunder/Heat regular season game in 2012, and the previous high for a playoff game was 1.8 million for Game 1 of a Kings/Mavericks second round series in 2003.
The games also earned the two largest audiences for the NBA opposite the NFL Draft since 2011, when TNT drew 3.8 million viewers for Lakers/Hornets Game 6 and 3.4 million for Mavericks/Blazers Game 6, both first round series. The first round of this year’s NFL Draft earned a record 9.9 million viewers on ESPN alone and 12.4 million on ESPN and NFL Network combined.
With that said, both games underperformed significantly. Nets/Heat declined 33% from Game 1 on TNT Monday night (4.5M) and Blazers/Spurs dropped 30% from the opener (4.8M). Nets/Heat earned the smallest audience for any second round NBA playoff game since Magic/Hawks Game 3 in 2010 (2.0M).
(Thu. numbers from The Futon Critic)
