The first game between the Mavericks and Lakers since the Luka Doncic trade delivered the top NBA audience on cable since Opening Night.
Tuesday’s Mavericks-Lakers NBA regular season game, which marked the first time Lakers G Luka Doncic has played against his former team, averaged 2.5 million viewers across TNT and truTV — the largest NBA audience on cable since Opening Night. (Unlike the fully exclusive Opening Night games, TNT’s broadcast co-existed with local RSN coverage in Los Angeles.)
Outside of Opening Night, it was the most-watched NBA game on cable since Mavericks-Spurs in October 2023, the first career game for Spurs C Victor Wembanyama. Excluding Opening Week entirely, the last regular season game to average more viewers on cable was Thunder-Lakers in February 2023, in which LeBron James set the all-time career scoring record (2.98M).
Across all networks, the game ranks 13th for the season behind the two Opening Night games and 11 ABC windows (including five on Christmas Day). Both the Lakers and Mavericks attracted larger audiences for their previous games, which aired on ABC over the weekend.
The Lakers have now played in six of the 13 most-watched games this season, the most of any team.
The Lakers’ win, which peaked with 2.9 million in the 10:30 PM ET quarter-hour, more-than-tripled last year’s equivalent Rockets-Thunder game (806K). It was the night’s top television program among adults under 50.
The game fared well despite a soft lead-in from the Cavaliers’ rout of the Magic, which averaged 1.0 million — down 15% from Sixers-Celtics last year (1.18M).
