A lopsided Western Conference Finals ended on a low note Wednesday night.
Wednesday’s Timberwolves-Thunder NBA Western Conference Finals Game 5 averaged 4.62 million viewers on ESPN, topping only Nuggets-Lakers Game 2 on an NFL Sunday in September 2020 (3.28M) as the least-watched WCF game since 2013 (Grizzlies-Spurs Game 2: 4.62M).
Oklahoma City’s blowout win was also the least-watched WCF Game 5 since Jazz-Spurs in 2007 (3.94M), falling even below that Lakers-Nuggets series in the 2020 “bubble” (4.99M). (The 2013 Spurs-Grizzlies series ended in a sweep.) Viewership declined 26% from last year’s Mavericks-Timberwolves Game 5 on TNT and truTV (6.26M).
Overall, Game 5 was the least-watched conference final game since Hawks-Bucks Game 2 in the COVID-delayed 2021 postseason (3.80M) and the least-watched Game 5 since Heat-Celtics in the “bubble” (4.54M).
The full, five-game Thunder-Timberwolves series averaged 5.59 million — down 17% from Mavericks-Timberwolves last year (6.74M) and the least-watched conference final since 2021 (Suns-Clippers: 5.49M; Bucks-Hawks: 4.99M). Four of five games were decided by at least 15 points, with leads of at least 24 points in each.
The Thunder trailed by as many as 45 in Game 3 and led by as many as 39 in Game 5, 26 in Game 1 and 24 in Game 2. The only game that was not a rout — Oklahoma’s two-point win in Game 4, in which they led by no more than 11 — was also the most-watched game of the series by far with 6.53 million viewers.
While Oklahoma City has always been one of the smallest NBA markets, it should be noted that their previous conference final appearances — during the era of Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook — fared far better. Their 2016 epic against Golden State still ranks as the most-watched conference final since 2002 with an average of nearly ten million viewers. Their three other conference finals, against Dallas in 2011 and San Antonio in 2012 and 2014, averaged 6.9, 7.8 and 6.8 million.
Despite the decline for the conference finals, ESPN and ABC remain ahead of last year’s playoff pace with an average of 4.98 million viewers — up 7% from last year.