On a day that included a Lakers-Celtics thriller, the trade deadline and the first All-Star draft, NBA ratings were a mixed bag.
Lakers-Celtics scored 2.64 million viewers on the NBA on TNT Thursday night, up 62% from last year (Celtics-Wizards: 1.63M) and up 25% from 2017 (Cavaliers-Thunder: 2.11M). Ratings were not immediately available.
The Lakers’ last-second win was the most-watched NBA game on TNT since the opening week of the season.
Compared to last season’s first meeting between the Lakers and Celtics, which took place in November and aired on ESPN, viewership fell 2% from 2.70 million.
The game aired immediately after the NBA All-Star Game Draft, which had 912,000 viewers. Last year’s All-Star draft was not televised. Viewership increased 97% over TNT’s pregame show the previous week, in which the All-Star reserves were announced (462K), and 79% over the pregame show two weeks ago, when the All-Star starters were revealed (510K).
To put the numbers in perspective, the final Pro Bowl Draft back in 2016 had 557,000 on ESPN2.
Shifting to the NBA’s other off-court business Thursday, ESPN scored 486,000 viewers for a three-hour trade deadline edition of The Jump — down 19% from last year (603K). Compared to a two-hour trade deadline special in 2017, viewership increased 5% (from 462K).
Returning to the actual games, Thursday’s Spurs-Blazers nightcap had 1.38 million on TNT (-9%). On ESPN Wednesday, Spurs-Warriors drew a 1.1 rating (+47%) and 1.58 million (+46%) and Wizards-Bucks a 0.8 (-42%) and 1.24 million (-42%).
[Numbers from Nielsen via ShowBuzz Daily 2.8, Programming Insider 2.7]
