New York Knicks vs. San Antonio Spurs sets benchmark for NBA Christmas ratings

NBA fans must have been very good this year, because the five-game Christmas slate, started with the New York Knicks’ opener against the San Antonio Spurs, lived up to the hype and then some. .

The NBA released viewership data from its holiday performances Thursday, claiming new milestones in the process: The Knicks-Spurs clash that kicked off at 12 p.m. ET at Madison Square Garden reportedly drew an average of 4.91 million of viewers, which is good for the most part. watched the opener since 2011, when the Knicks and Boston Celtics opened the lockout-shortened campaign.

It was also reported that this was a 98 percent improvement over last year’s midday tipoff, which saw the Knicks defeat the Milwaukee Bucks. New York has hosted a game at MSG at noon each of the last four Christmases.

The Knicks’ final Christmas excursion, their NBA-record 57th, played out as Mikal Bridges and Victor Wembanyama battled to score for four quarters. A season-high 41 points from Bridges in his first tour as a New Yorker was enough to successfully counter a 41-point, 18-rebound double-double from Wembanyama as the Knicks won by a final of 117-114.

To be fair, there are several differences between the recent slates and Wednesday’s broadcast: All five games were broadcast on both ESPN and ABC, as the broadcast network’s consistent coverage has broadened the league’s reach. However, the good ratings and narrow final margins (none of Wednesday’s five games were decided by more than 10 points) made it a very merry Christmas for the NBA, which had to deal with a holiday invasion of the National Football League.

The primetime matchup between the Golden State Warriors and Los Angeles Lakers was the big winner of the day, averaging 7.76 million viewers to become the most-watched NBA regular season game since 2019. With no NFL game to compete with at night, the 8 p.m. ET news was up 499 percent. Last year’s edition, featuring the Miami Heat and Philadelphia 76ers, was to cover a football game between the Baltimore Ravens and San Francisco 49ers, which some saw as a potential Super Bowl preview.

Still having to compete with two NFL games on Netflix (both of which featured one-sided results but drew over 23 million viewers), progress in the afternoon/evening games wasn’t as obvious although still up from last season: the 2:30 a.m. tip-off between the Dallas Mavericks and Minnesota Timberwolves was up three percent while a divisional clash between Boston and Philadelphia at 5 p.m. was up three percent.

The matchup between the Lakers and Warriors was billed as the headliner of the annual Christmas slate, which typically takes place at 5 or 5:30 p.m. ET. Last year’s equivalent, for example, was a rivalry chapter between the Celtics and Lakers in Los Angeles. Presented as one of the potential final confrontations between Stephen Curry and LeBron James, the latter’s Lakers won 115-113 thanks to a winning goal from Austin Reaves.

The rest of the story unfolded in the Finals, as the Denver Nuggets’ showdown with the Phoenix Suns averaged 3.84 million viewers, a record for the 10:30 p.m. ET slot. The host Suns won 110-100.

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