After splitting the last two NBA Finals, and widely expected to meet in a rubber match this year, the Cavaliers and Warriors have continued to dominate the NBA’s national TV ratings.
Warriors-Bulls had a 1.7 final rating and 2.7 million viewers on the NBA on TNT last night, up 55% in ratings and 67% in viewership from Spurs-Pelicans last year (1.1, 1.6M), up 21% and 31% respectively from Thunder-Bulls in 2015 (1.4, 2.1M), and the largest NBA audience on cable since Cavaliers-Warriors on Martin Luther King Day (4.5M).
Compared to Thunder-Warriors on the same night but in a later window last year, ratings fell 26% from a 2.3 and viewership 25% from 3.6 million.
The previous night, Celtics-Cavaliers had a 1.4 and 2.2 million on ESPN — up 56% in ratings and 66% in viewership from Pistons-Spurs last year (0.9, 1.4M) and up 75% and 99% respectively from Lakers-Heat in ’15 (0.8, 1.1M).
Golden State and Cleveland have now played in 25 of the 29 most-watched games this season, with the Warriors’ loss ranking 14th and the Cavaliers’ ranking 22nd. The lone exceptions are Bulls-Spurs on Christmas (5.5M), Celtics-Knicks on Christmas (3.7M), Spurs-Knicks on February 12 (2.9M) and Clippers-Celtics on Super Bowl Sunday (2.1M).
In addition, ratings and viewership have now increased at least 50% for seven of the past nine games involving Golden State or Cleveland.
In other action, Rockets-Clippers had a 1.0 and 1.6 million in Wednesday’s nightcap — flat in ratings and up 7% in viewership from Thunder-Clippers last year (1.0, 1.5M) and up a tick and 17% respectively from Blazers-Clippers in 2015 (0.9, 1.3M). Thursday’s Thunder-Blazers nightcap had 1.8 million viewers, down 50% from last year’s aforementioned Thunder-Warriors game but up 18% from Mavericks-Blazers in ’15 (1.5M).
