For all of the drama and narratives surrounding the NBA this season, we were reminded Wednesday night of what happens when you put two of the best teams in primetime and let them prove why audiences should be tuning in.
Wednesday’s thrilling showdown between the Eastern Conference-leading Cleveland Cavaliers and Western Conference-leading Oklahoma City Thunder, which the Cavs won 129-122, averaged a very healthy 1.87 million viewers on ESPN.
Wednesday’s matchup between #ThunderUp & #LetEmKnow averaged 1.87M viewers pic.twitter.com/KqyiQpH8Dh
— ESPN PR (@ESPNPR) January 10, 2025
That’s a 20 percent uptick from last year’s comparable game (Pelicans vs.Warriors on ABC, per Sports Media Watch) and the second-largest NBA audience on an ESPN cable network this year (November’s Warriors vs. Celtics averaged 2.14 million).
The game peaked with an audience of 2.5 million, which puts it at 13th on the season overall and sixth among cable-only games, per SMW.
If you don’t love this game, if you watched this, you don’t love basketball,” said ESPN’s Brian Windhorst on Thursday. “This was a display of great, high-level basketball.”
The two conference-leading squads will meet again next Thursday, January 16 in a game that will be televised on TNT. The Rematch, as the NBA is already promoting it, is sure to bring in just as sizable an audience, if not an even bigger one, now that America has seen how entertaining this matchup can be.
About Sean Keeley
Along with writing for Awful Announcing and The Comeback, Sean is the Managing Editor for Comeback Media. Previously, he created the Syracuse blog Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician and wrote 'How To Grow An Orange: The Right Way to Brainwash Your Child Into Rooting for Syracuse.' He has also written non-Syracuse-related things for SB Nation, Curbed, and other outlets. He currently lives in Seattle where he is complaining about bagels. Send tips/comments/complaints to sean@thecomeback.com.