NBA Finals Game 2 down from opener, lowest since “bubble”

If there was any hope that Tyrese Haliburton’s Game 1 game-winner would give the NBA Finals some much needed momentum, it was not to be in Sunday’s Game 2.

Sunday’s Pacers-Thunder NBA Finals Game 2 averaged 8.76 million viewers on ABC, down 29% from Mavericks-Celtics (12.31M) and the least-watched Game 2 of the Finals since the Heat-Lakers in the fall 2020 “bubble” on the night the president was hospitalized due to COVID (6.78M). Outside of that anomalous circumstance, it was the least-watched since Cavaliers-Spurs opposite the series finale of “The Sopranos” in 2007 (8.55M).

The only other Game 2 with a smaller audience in the Nielsen people meter era (1988-present) was Nets-Spurs on a Friday night in 2003 (8.06M).

Oklahoma City’s easy win peaked with 9.90 million viewers in the 9:45 PM ET quarter-hour, falling well short of the Game 1 peak of 11.1 million, which occurred as the Pacers mounted a comeback in the final minutes to steal the game on a Tyrese Haliburton game-winner.

There was some expectation that viewership for Game 2 would increase over Game 1 as a result of the momentum from Haliburton’s game winner. Instead, Pacers-Thunder became the first Finals since the 2020 “bubble” — and only the third since 2007 — where Game 2 viewership declined from Game 1. Oklahoma City led by as many as 23 points in a game that was rarely in doubt.

The Pacers-Thunder NBA Finals now ranks as only the second of the Nielsen people meter era (1988-present) in which neither Game 1 nor Game 2 hit the nine million mark. Bucks-Suns in 2021, Cavaliers-Spurs in 2007 and Nets-Spurs in 2003 each hit nine million for Game 1 or 2.

Unlike other low-rated NBA Finals, this year’s series at least outpaces everything else on television. Games 1 and 2 rank as the most-watched television programs since the first week of May, and Game 2 had an audience 50 percent larger than the weekend’s next-most watched program. By comparison, the previously-noted Cavaliers-Spurs Game 2 in 2007 was dominated head-to-head by “The Sopranos” on pay cable.

So far, Pacers-Thunder ranks about the same as the record-low Rangers-Diamondbacks World Series two years ago. Game 1 of that series actually topped the nine million mark (9.17M) before viewership dropped to 8.13 million in Game 2. That series did not get back above nine million again until the Game 5 finale, which drew a far healthier 11.45 million.