NBA Finals ratings rise for Game 3; series still down

The viewership numbers made a modest comeback in Game 3 on Wednesday night as the Indiana Pacers beat the Oklahoma City Thunder 116-107 to take a 2-1 lead in the NBA Finals.
The game in Indianapolis averaged 9.19 million viewers on ABC, a 5 percent increase from Game 2, according to a report from Front Office Sports on Friday.
That’s still a 20 percent drop from the 11.43 million who watched Game 3 of the 2024 NBA Finals between the Boston Celtics and Dallas Mavericks.
It was the least-watched Finals Game 3 since the 2020 COVID “bubble” year when 6.08 million tuned in for the Miami Heat and Los Angeles Lakers — a contest that occurred on an NFL Sunday in October.
The Pacers’ Game 3 win peaked with 11.54 million viewers during the 11 p.m. ET quarter-hour. That surpassed the final minutes of Game 1 (11.1 million) as the highest point of the series so far.
The three-game average for the best-of-seven series is up to 8.95 million viewers, a 23 percent decline from 2024.
Game 4 is Friday night in Indianapolis and Game 5 is Monday in Oklahoma City.