Advertisement - scroll for more content
Saturday’s Knicks-Pacers NBA Eastern Conference Finals Game 6 averaged 8.12 million viewers across TNT and truTV, down 7% from the previous conference final Game 6 — Celtics-Heat two years ago (8.71M) — but the most-watched game of the NBA season. The previous high was 7.91 million for Lakers-Warriors on Christmas, and the previous playoff high was 7.35 million for Lakers-Timberwolves in the first round.
After 66′ you ended up on the Warriors after being picked up by the expansion Bulls and had a good season averaging 11-4-5. Warriors went 6-2 against the Lakers in the regular season and you eventually swept them with West injured. Can you talk about that season and how you felt going against your former Laker teammates, specifically in the playoffs? Jim King: “Bill Sharman said he needed another couple of guards so for Guy Rodgers he got Jeff Mullins and myself and that was a good deal for both of us.” “Jerry and I were really good friends and I had just moved weeks before and had received a Christmas card from him with a really nice letter. We just had a really nice connection. He’s a country boy and I was raised on a farm. We were competitive, we knew we were gonna play hard against each other but I didn’t like to play against him. He was incredible when he needed two points.” “The Lakers were obviously good. Jerry and Elgin, Rudy LaRusso, Frank Selvy, we had some good old guys and they knew how to work and play and they were a good bunch of people. Clean cut guys.”
SiriusXM NBA Radio: “We don't own Christmas…competition keeps you on your toes. The NFL sees an opportunity on Christmas. I accept that” With the NFL schedule being released this week, Adam Silver talks to @TermineRadio , @Jumpshot8 & Ryan McDonough about how the NBA is approaching potential schedule changes
“You know, after Christmas—and that was Luka's fourth calf strain in 28 months, same calf, left calf—Nico definitely blamed poor conditioning for that. Luka’s people said, ‘Hey, he's come back too soon from injuries, including the left heel. He's whatever.’ So there was this divide between Nico and Luka’s camp for sure. And the level of frustration that Nico had at that time was high. By the way, Jason Kidd’s was too. And, you know, I think Kidd's kind of tried to distance himself, but Kidd's frustration level with Luka was also quite high. I was told at the time, ‘Hey, if we got to trade him...’—and obviously this was off the record, but they traded him now, so I'll say it—‘If we got to trade him, we’ll trade his ass.’ And I’m like, ‘No, you won’t.’ I seriously rolled my eyes. I’m like, ‘Okay, you're huffing, you're puffing, you ain't blowing that house down. Give me a break.’ Because it’s a ludicrous thing to consider.
Advertisement
Nate Robinson on when he got news he'd get kidney transplant: I cried like a baby for days
But the fight took its toll on Nate Robinson. “Dialysis is hard to explain. Your kidneys stop working, so the machine cleans your blood and puts it back in. You get stabbed with two needles three times a week for four hours each time. That was my life for four years. The mental part was the hardest. There were times I wanted to give up, but I’ve never quit anything in my life. I had a support system—my mom, my grandma, friends. They sat with me during dialysis. Without them, I wouldn’t have made it.” Then came the call he had been praying for. “God sent me an angel. His name is Shane Cleveland—he gave me a healthy kidney. They told me at Christmas and it was the best gift I ever received. I cried like a baby for three or four days. When the doctor called and said I’d get a kidney, I fell to my knees and said, ‘Thank God.’ I called my mom, my dad—we all cried. It wasn’t just being sick. I was fighting for my life.”
Luka Doncic's return to Dallas draws ESPN’s largest non-Christmas NBA audience this season
Wednesday’s Lakers-Mavericks NBA regular season game, which marked Lakers G Luka Doncic’s first game in Dallas since being traded at midseason, averaged 2.26 million viewers on ESPN — the network’s top audience of the season outside of Christmas and a sharp increase over Mavericks-Heat in the same window last year (1.23M). Somewhat surprisingly, Doncic’s return was not even their most-watched Laker game in the past week, trailing their matchup with Golden State on TNT last Thursday (2.5M).
NBA viewership has almost fully rebounded from its much-publicized double-digit decline at the start of this season, with ABC playing a key role. NBA games are averaging 1.58 million viewers across ABC, ESPN and TNT, down just 1 percent from the same point last season. Including NBA TV, the season average of 1.10 million is down 5 percent. Earlier this season, viewership was down in the neighborhood of 20 percent, with most of that decline wiped out by the league’s most-watched Christmas Day slate in five years.
Advertisement
The NBA continues to see a strong back half of the season, with national viewership down just 2% now from the same period last season (games were down 19% headed into Christmas this season). Game telecasts across ABC, ESPN and TNT are averaging 1.57 million viewers as mid-March approaches, well head of the 1.4 million the league was posting prior to Christmas. Simulcasts on ABC for Christmas helped boost the annual holiday 84% year-over-year. The NBA’s audience in February was up 33% from what the league was averaging in January (1.6 million vs. 1.2 million). The Luka Doncic-Anthony Davis trade occurred in the wee hours of Feb. 2.
Lakers vs Celtics the most-watched regular-season NBA game since 2018 excluding Christmas
ESPN’s coverage of the Boston Celtics 111-101 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers on the March 8 edition of NBA Saturday Primetime on ABC Presented by Wingstop averaged 4,605,000 viewers, making it the most-watched regular season NBA game in seven years, since 2018 (excluding Christmas). The broadcast was up 92 percent from last year’s comparable game window. According to Nielsen, NBA Saturday Primetime on ABC Presented by Wingstop – the premier, national NBA game of the week – broadcast peaked with 5,342,000 viewers from 9:15-9:29 p.m. ET. The Celtics vs. Lakers game was available across ABC, ESPN+ and Disney+.
"He was super dialed in," LeBron James said of Doncic. "He was very locked in on what he wanted to do out here on the floor tonight. Once he started hitting those step-back 3s and got to yelling and barking, either at the fans or at us, or himself." Doncic had averaged 14.7 points on 35.6% shooting (20.8% from 3) through his first three games with the Lakers while slowly integrating into the lineup after a left calf injury had kept him sidelined since Christmas with the Dallas Mavericks.
James, playing on a left ankle injury that held him out of the All-Star Game, pointed out that Doncic was playing in only his third game since Christmas because of a strained left calf injury. "He still doesn't know all the plays. He doesn't know all the defensive coverages, all the signals and things that we've built since September," James said. "So obviously we're trying to fast-track it on the fly. He's coming back from his injury. He's getting back into form. So we're all working through it together."
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement