The biggest non–NBA Cup game of the season will be played in Cleveland on Wednesday night. And no, it doesn’t involve LeBron James returning home.
The Thunder (30–5) visit the Cavaliers (31–4) in a battle of the NBA’s top two teams. Both are on pace to win 70+ games, and it’s just the third time in NBA history that two teams with at least an .850 win percentage will meet this late in the season.
Both are also in the middle of a particularly hot stretch. The Thunder are on a 15-game winning streak (excluding their loss to the Bucks in the NBA Cup final, which is not part of the 82-game schedule), while the Cavs have won 10 straight. Additionally, neither team has lost to one from the opposing conference.
It’s no surprise the league is heavily marketing this contest across its social platforms. But the NBA is taking on a challenging task, since Oklahoma City and Cleveland are small markets and their respective stars, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Donovan Mitchell, have yet to appear in the NBA Finals.
Neither entered the year as a major viewership draw, as the Thunder were scheduled for 15 nationally televised games (excluding NBA TV)—11th most in the league despite finishing with the No. 1 seed in the West last year—while the Cavaliers had just eight.
Their two meetings for this season were not originally scheduled as nationally televised games, but on Dec. 13, the NBA announced it would flex both into the national TV schedule: Wednesday on ESPN and Jan. 16 on TNT. However, due to the fires in Los Angeles, ESPN will not hold its usual NBA Countdown show on Wednesday and instead air an expanded version of SportsCenter.
Oklahoma City is now up to 20 national TV games—two against Cleveland and three from its run to the NBA Cup final. The Cavaliers are up to 10. Including NBA TV, the league has flexed seven Thunder games and three Cavs games into its national schedule—and more could come as the season has yet to reach its midway point.
There is some proof that both teams can bring in an audience, given their strong seasons. The NBA Cup final between the Thunder and Bucks drew nearly three million fans. That’s down from last year’s final that included the Lakers, but it was the second-most-watched game of the season at the time. The Cavaliers’ loss to the Celtics on Nov. 19 averaged 1.94 million viewers, above the 1.8 million TNT drew through the first month of the season.
NBA viewership, which has been a hot topic this season, is averaging 1.74 million across ABC, ESPN, and TNT, a 3% decrease from last year. It was previously down double digits until Christmas Day delivered an 87% increase.
