A scheduling shift helped the NBA Cup quarterfinals pull nearly even with a year ago.
The NBA Cup quarterfinals averaged 1.36 million viewers across TNT and ESPN, off 1% from last year (1.38M). After a pair of last year’s games aired on a Monday night opposite the NFL, this year’s quarterfinals aired on Tuesday and Wednesday, avoiding football competition.
Tuesday’s Mavericks-Thunder quarterfinal was the most-watched game of the round with 1.49 million across TNT and truTV, preceded by Magic-Bucks at 1.2 million — both up from last year’s Monday windows, Pelicans-Kings (741K) and Celtics-Pacers (1.1M).
On Wednesday night, ESPN averaged 1.46 million for Hawks-Knicks and TNT 1.32 million for Warriors-Rockets, both down from the second quarterfinal night last year, when Knicks-Bucks drew 1.7 million and Suns-Lakers 2.0 million respectively.
That the Warriors game ranked third out of the four quarterfinals can be partially explained by the unusual split doubleheader; coverage had a lead-in from an NHL game on TNT, rather than the Hawks-Knicks game on ESPN.
This year’s NBA Cup knockout round will completely avoid NFL competition, a shift from last year, when the aforementioned two quarterfinals and a semifinal aired opposite NFL games. Given the remaining teams — Atlanta, Milwaukee, Houston and Oklahoma City — it remains to be seen whether the schedule will be enough to keep pace with a year ago, when the Lakers won the inaugural event.
Starting next season, the entire NBA Cup knockout round — including the final — will air on Amazon Prime Video as part of the company’s NBA rights deal.
