Los Angeles Lakers-Golden State Warriors Series Got Huge Ratings For NBA

NBA basketball

Getty Image / Nic Antaya


During the second round of the NBA playoffs, there was plenty for basketball fans to enjoy.

The Denver Nuggets took out the Phoenix Suns in 6 games to get revenge for the “Suns in 4” series from a couple of years ago.

The Miami Heat pulled off another upset, beating the New York Knicks in 6 games to advance to the Eastern Conference Finals for the 3rd time in 4 seasons.

They’ll be meeting the Boston Celtics there after they came back from a 3-2 deficit against the Philadelphia 76ers in an exciting series that went to 7 games.

Still, there was no series that had basketball fans as excited as the matchup between the Golden State Warriors and the Los Angeles Lakers.

With Steph Curry and the defending champs taking on LeBron James and the surging Lakers, the NBA couldn’t have asked for a better 2nd round matchup.

Now we know just how badly basketball fans wanted to see that matchup.

The NBA revealed today that the series averaged 7.8 million viewers, making it the most watched 2nd round series in 27 years.

The NBA had to be thrilled when the Warriors and Lakers both managed to prevail in the first round of the playoffs.

While the Sacramento Kings and Memphis Grizzlies both have talented, young rosters, a matchup with either of them wouldn’t have been nearly as big of a draw and a matchup between the two probably would not have gotten much attention from neutral fans.

Instead, the NBA got to enjoy having two of their most marketable franchises go head to head in the second round of the playoffs.

The series paid off for the league in a big way with some huge viewership numbers and it wouldn’t be surprising to see more of the same in the next round with LeBron’s Los Angeles Lakers taking on the team with the best record remaining in the playoffs.