Unsurprisingly, the trade that stunned the NBA world has provided a lift in viewership.
Just a few weeks following the shocking trade that sent Luka Dončić to the Los Angeles Lakers, ABC is capitalizing on the increased interest in the team. According to ESPN PR, Saturday’s marquee matchup between the Lakers and Denver Nuggets averaged 2.87 million viewers for ESPN’s NBA Saturday Primetime on ABC. That’s a 29% increase in viewership versus last year’s Boston Celtics-New York Knicks game in the same window (2.22 million viewers).
The Lakers’ blowout win finishes just outside the ten most-watched NBA games this season (mostly Christmas Day and Opening Night games). Per Jon Lewis of Sports Media Watch, Saturday’s game actually drew fewer viewers than the 3.05 million that a Nuggets-Lakers game drew on ABC last March without Dončić.
Nevertheless, the buzz around Dončić certainly isn’t hurting viewership. ESPN drew over 2 million viewers for Dončić’s Lakers debut late on a Monday night earlier this month, about 42% higher than the network’s average NBA regular season audience from last year.
Perhaps surprisingly, Lakers-Nuggets wasn’t even the most-watched NBA game this weekend; that honor went to Dončić’s former team. Sunday’s Dallas Mavericks-Golden State Warriors game on ABC averaged 2.90 million viewers, down 3% versus last year’s game between the Lakers and Phoenix Suns (2.98 million viewers, per Lewis).
Earlier Sunday afternoon, the Knicks and Celtics averaged 2.24 million viewers on ABC, up 37% versus a Milwaukee Bucks-Philadelphia 76ers game one year ago (1.64 million viewers).
