With the regular season ending on a Sunday for the first time in 23 years, the NBA had its strongest finish in five.
Sunday’s Grizzlies-Warriors NBA regular season game averaged a 1.0 rating and 1.82 million viewers on ESPN, marking the league’s largest audience on the final day of the regular season since 2016 — when the Warriors won their record-setting 73rd game of the season on ESPN, also against the Grizzlies (3.65M), while Kobe Bryant played his final game on ESPN2 (3.47M). Keep in mind the regular season usually ends on a Wednesday night.
Golden State’s win delivered the largest NBA audience on cable since Nets-Lakers in February (1.94M) and the league’s top audience on ESPN since Christmas. Overall, it ranks as the ninth-most watched game on cable all season and the third-most watched on ESPN.
Earlier in the day, Celtics-Knicks pulled a 0.6 and 1.07 million. ESPN carried 11 weekend matinee games during the final month of the season, with all-but-two averaging at least one million viewers. Over that span, only nine of its 16 primetime games topped the million mark.
In other action, TNT drew a 0.8 and 1.32 million for its regular season finale of Blazers-Suns Thursday night — down from its final game last season, Blazers-Nets in the “bubble” in August (0.9, 1.52M), but still the network’s top game since February that did not involve the Lakers.
Rounding out the recent schedule, Sixers-Heat drew a 0.6 and 971,000 on TNT earlier Thursday night; ESPN scored a 0.7 and 1.13 million for Blazers-Jazz and a 0.50 and 777,000 for Wizards-Hawks on Wednesday, and a 0.54 and 894,000 for Pelicans-Warriors on Friday (blacked out in the Bay Area).
NBA TV chipped in 502,000 for Lakers-Pelicans Sunday night. All games on NBA TV are blacked out in both home markets.
