(UPDATE 3/4/10: Nuggets/Lakers drew a 2.5 overnight rating on ABC, not the 3.8 that had been previously reported. The 2.5 was down 34% from Lakers/Suns last year, and down 27% from Mavericks/Lakers in ’08.)
Even without hefty competition, the overnight rating for Sunday’s Nuggets/Lakers game would have been impressive.
The Lakers’ win over the Nuggets drew a 3.8 overnight rating on ABC Sunday afternoon, even with Lakers/Suns last year (3.8), and up 12% from Mavericks/Lakers in ’08 (3.4).
Excluding Christmas Day games, the 3.8 overnight is tied as the fifth-highest for a regular season NBA game since ’02.
The numbers are even more impressive when factoring in the immense competition from the Olympic Men’s Hockey Gold Medal game on NBC, which drew a 17.6 overnight (15.2 final rating).
Sunday’s game came to within just 0.3 ratings points of the competing NASCAR race on FOX — one of the smallest gaps between NASCAR on FOX and regular season NBA basketball on ABC in recent memory.
Earlier in the day, the Suns/Spurs thriller drew just a 1.8 overnight rating, down 36% from Pistons/Celtics last year (2.8), and down 22% from Bulls/Cavaliers in ’08 (2.3).
