Only “Playoff Jimmy” and the underdog Heat could cool — though not stop — the ratings momentum for Warriors-Kings.
Wednesday’s Warriors-Kings first round NBA playoff Game 5 averaged 4.29 million viewers on TNT, up 7% from Nuggets-Warriors last year (4.02M). All five games of the series have increased over the comparable window last year — each of which featured Golden State against Denver — and rank among the nine most-watched games this postseason.
Game 5 was not as strong a draw as prior games in the series, posting the smallest year-over-year gain and second-smallest audience (Game 3 averaged 4.12 million). Keep in mind nearly the entire game overlapped with the competing Heat-Bucks Game 5 on NBA TV, which averaged 934,000 viewers — the largest playoff audience on the network since 2014 (Pacers-Hawks Game 6: 1.07M).
Miami’s win, which clinched the first 8-over-1 upset since 2012, delivered the network’s largest audience overall since the 2016 regular season — when the Warriors tied the 1995-96 Bulls with their 72nd win (2.6M).
Earlier in the night, Lakers-Grizzlies Game 5 averaged 3.89 million on TNT — up 43% from Bulls-Bucks last year (2.72M). As with Warriors-Kings, the Grizzlies’ win posted the second-smallest audience of the series (Game 2 averaged 3.80 million). Most of the game overlapped with Knicks-Cavaliers Game 5 on NBA TV, which delivered the network’s second-largest audience of the playoffs with 595,000 viewers.
In other playoff action, the Hawks’ last-second Game 5 win over the Celtics averaged 3.32 million on TNT Tuesday — up 15% from Timberwolves-Grizzlies last year (2.90M). It was followed by Clippers-Suns at 3.19 million, down 8% from Pelicans-Suns a year ago (3.47M). After topping five million in Game 1 and nearing four million in Game 2, Clippers-Suns petered out soon after — owing to some poor timeslots and the injury to Kawhi Leonard.
NBA TV chipped in 589,000 for Timberwolves-Nuggets, down 4% from last year’s Heat-Hawks in an earlier window (613K).
As is now commonplace, the NBA took the top two spots across all of television in adults 18-49, 18-34 and 25-54 on both Tuesday and Wednesday.
(Nielsen estimates from ShowBuzz Daily 4.27)
