Warriors-Thunder Game 7 was highest-rated cable NBA game ever
TNT’s telecast of Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals between the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Golden State Warriors has been confirmed as the highest-rated NBA game in cable television history.
Monday night was a historic evening for basketball.
The Golden State Warriors became just the 10th team in NBA history to successfully come back from a 3-1 series deficit. They punched their ticket to the Finals, where they will meet LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers for the second consecutive year with all the marbles on the line.
And in doing so, the team that just set the record for most wins in a regular season also just helped set another record for the highest-rated NBA broadcast in cable television history.
TNT’s Warriors/Thunder Game 7 averaged an 11.2 HH MM rating, cable’s highest rated NBA game telecast of all time based on overnights
— Warner Bros. Discovery Sports U.S. PR (@WBDSportsPR) May 31, 2016
The news should come as no great surprise to anyone who was fortunate enough to take in the contest Monday night. The Warriors’ 96-88 Game 7 win over the Thunder proved a fitting end to what has easily been the most exciting (and most competitive) series thus far in the 2015-2016 NBA playoffs.
The only thing better than Game 7 might have been Game 6 two nights earlier in Oklahoma City, where the Thunder led all game before imploding late in the fourth quarter to allow the Warriors one last chance to win the Western Conference Finals at home. That game, also on TNT, had previously owned the record for being the highest-rated playoff game so far this season, but it still came nowhere near the historic levels Game 7 achieved.
If this series was any indication, ABC should be licking their chops at the prospect of a ratings bonanza as the Warriors and Cavaliers get ready to square off on basketball’s greatest stage. Game 1 of the Finals tips off this Thursday at 9:00 p.m. EST.
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