{"id":119693,"date":"2025-06-24T00:29:11","date_gmt":"2025-06-24T00:29:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/119693\/"},"modified":"2025-06-24T00:29:11","modified_gmt":"2025-06-24T00:29:11","slug":"thunder-pacers-game-7-salvages-small-market-nba-finals-ratings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/119693\/","title":{"rendered":"Thunder-Pacers Game 7 salvages small-market NBA Finals ratings"},"content":{"rendered":"

Game 7 of the NBA Finals between the Pacers and Thunder was the most-watched NBA game since 2019<\/a>, according to Nielsen fast-nationals.<\/p>\n

While Indiana and Oklahoma City are two of the smaller markets in the league, the stakes of the win-or-go-home finale drew in a peak of 19.28 million viewers and an average of 16.35 million viewers to ABC and ESPN+.<\/p>\n

The 16.35-million average blew the games of the last six years out of the water, with the next best viewership being Game 6 of the 2022 finals between the Celtics and Warriors at 13.99 million viewers.<\/p>\n

NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n

NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Game 6 between the Raptors and Warriors in 2019 was the last time an NBA game surpassed Sunday night\u2019s viewership, when Toronto finished off Golden State to win its first-ever title in front of an average of 18.59 million viewers.<\/p>\n

Sunday night\u2019s game was, however, the lowest-viewed NBA Finals Game 7 across the entire Nielsen people meter era (1988-present).<\/p>\n

Game 6 of the 2019 NBA Finals between the Warriors and Raptors was the last time an NBA game had as many viewers as Sunday night\u2019s Pacers-Thunder Game 7. AP<\/p>\n

It was the first Game 7 in a finals series since 2016 when LeBron James helped the Cavaliers finish off their 3-1 comeback against the Warriors and the game drew 31.02 million viewers.<\/p>\n

Considering the viewership through the first six games of this year\u2019s finals series, Sunday\u2019s mark of over 16 million seemed unlikely.<\/p>\n

Before Game 7, no game in the series had even reached 10 million viewers, with Game 5 having the highest viewership at 9.54 million.<\/p>\n

TJ McConnell helped keep the Pacers afloat in Game 7 after Tyrese Haliburton\u2019s injury. NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n

With the massive jump in Game 7, it raised the entire series\u2019 viewership to an average of 10.27 million viewers per game.<\/p>\n

This average is down from last year\u2019s finals where the Celtics and Mavericks drew 11.31 million viewers.<\/p>\n

Game 7 saw the Thunder come away victorious 103-91, winning their first title in the franchise\u2019s history while the Pacers remain championship-less.<\/p>\n

The Thunder capped off their excellent season with a championship. NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Oklahoma City\u2019s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander capped off his MVP regular season by winning the Finals MVP award.<\/p>\n

For Indiana, star Tyrese Haliburton went down with a torn Achilles after scoring nine points in just seven minutes.<\/p>\n

Tyrese Haliburton suffered a torn achilles just seven minutes into Game 7. IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect<\/p>\n

The game was shaping up to be a tight and intense one, even after Haliburton\u2019s injury, as the Pacers went into halftime with a lead. <\/p>\n

But ultimately, the Thunder were too much for the undermanned Indiana squad.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Game 7 of the NBA Finals between the Pacers and Thunder was the most-watched NBA game since 2019,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":119694,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[7,126,6,1220,11,197,179,209,66,2086,278],"class_list":{"0":"post-119693","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba-playoffs","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-indiana-pacers","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-nba-finals","12":"tag-nba-playoffs","13":"tag-nba-playoffs-2025","14":"tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","15":"tag-shai-gilgeous-alexander","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-sports-entertainment","18":"tag-tyrese-haliburton"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114735517858353087","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119693\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}