Celtics-Lakers Draws Record Ratings, NBA Nearly Even With Last Year

After months of chatter on the NBA’s declining viewership, the league’s oldest rivalry has pushed its ratings as close as they have been to last year’s mark.

The Celtics and Lakers game drew 4.61 million viewers and peaked at 5.34 million Saturday on ABC, the most-watched non-Christmas regular-season NBA game since 2018, the league announced Tuesday. The game even outdrew two of this season’s Christmas Day games—the only regular-season game to achieve that feat this year.

Before Saturday, the most-watched non-Christmas game this year was a Jan. 25 matchup between the Lakers and Warriors on ABC that drew 3.05 million viewers.

The NBA is now averaging 1.57 million viewers for its nationally televised games, down 2% from last year. It’s a stark improvement over the double-digit declines the league experienced through the first two months of the year. The NBA had an 18% viewership decline before Christmas, when the five-game slate simulcast on ABC and ESPN cut the dip to 4%. 

Saturday’s game had the recipe for a top-tier draw. The Celtics and Lakers are the league’s two winningest franchises, and both teams are top three seeds in their respective conferences and championship contenders. 

Most of the teams’ stars were also available for the game. LeBron James and Luka Dončić played for Los Angeles—though James went down with an injury in the fourth quarter—and both are considered top viewership draws, especially after the shocking trade that sent Dončić to the Lakers last month. Boston’s core that won the 2024 championship was mostly available, with only Kristaps Porziņģis missing due to illness.