The Golden State Warriors and Houston Rockets put on quite a show during their seven-game series, which culminated in another trip to the NBA Finals for the Warriors Monday night.
The broadcast of that pivotal Warriors-Rockets Game 7, hosted by Turner Network on TNT, was one of the most-watched basketball games in the history of cable sports. Turner Sports announced on Tuesday morning that the game delivered the second highest-rating in cable television history.
TNT’s 2018 NBA WCF Game 7 (Warriors/Rockets) delivered cable television’s second highest-rated NBA game telecast of all time and the highest rating for an NBA game this year across all of television (cable and broadcast), based on a 10.3 metered market rating
— TNT Sports U.S. PR (@TNTSportsUS) May 29, 2018
The highest-rated cable broadcast of an NBA game remains Game 7 of the 2016 Western Conference Finals between these same Warriors and the Oklahoma City Thunder — a game Kevin Durant would have us forget.
It’s not surprising that so many people tuned in to watch this game, especially since there was the added allure that, just perhaps, the Warriors could be knocked off their perch as the dominant team in the west.
In the end, however, we know what happened. James Harden did too much dribbling, the Rockets couldn’t buy a bucket and the Warriors went rolling on to the Finals with a convincing second-half blowout, much to the chagrin of Rockets fans and fans of parity everywhere.