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The NBA couldn’t luck out on a Lakers vs. Warriors playoff matchup despite several opportunities. A playoff series between the two big-market franchises would have secured a ratings bonanza for the league, considering their regular-season games this season and their second-round meeting in 2023 broke viewership records.
It could, however, be a long-term positive outcome for the NBA as it tries to build its next wave of talent to emulate the stardom of LeBron James and Steph Curry.
Following a Game 7 win over the Rockets on Sunday, Golden State will have a second-round battle against the Timberwolves, who defeated the Lakers in five games. Minnesota star Anthony Edwards now has the opportunity to eliminate both James and Curry en route to a second straight conference finals appearance.
The 23-year-old, who outplayed both James and Luka Dončić in the first round, is already one of the league’s best and most famous American players. He was seventh in the league in jersey sales this season and fifth among Americans behind Curry, James, Jayson Tatum, and Jalen Brunson. (Dončić and Victor Wembanyama were the other two.) He’s the only U.S. player on that list who does not play for a big-market franchise.
By facing the Warriors in the second round, Edwards and the Timberwolves will keep the spotlight that came with battling the Lakers in the opening round, which included 7.34 million viewers for Game 4, the third-most-watched opening-round game since 2002, according to Sports Media Watch.
The two games that eclipsed that viewership number? Games 4 and 7 of the Warriors vs. Kings series in 2023.
Golden State didn’t garner as much attention as the Lakers in the regular season—in part because the Warriors’ trade for Jimmy Butler didn’t generate nearly as much buzz as Los Angeles acquiring Dončić. But Golden State still had a couple of non-Lakers games draw more than two million viewers, including one in November that helped curb the league’s early-season ratings slump.
