Entering these NBA Finals, one of the underlying storylines was that no one would care about the Denver Nuggets and Miami Heat.
The Nuggets, even with a status as the Western Conference’s No. 1 seed, apparently weren’t interesting despite a lot of evidence to the contrary. Meanwhile, even amidst one of the most shocking runs by a No. 8 seed in league history, the Miami Heat simply weren’t worth anyone’s time.
About that.
It turns out the NBA doesn’t need traditional powers like the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics — who were both defeated in the West and East Finals, respectively — to make for a thrilling championship series for fans at home.
Don’t believe me? Let the Nielsen TV ratings from Sunday’s back-and-forth Game 2 tell the story. According to Nielsen, with 11.9 million average viewers, Game 2 of Nuggets-Heat actually matched the audience numbers from Game 2 of Warriors-Celtics from last year’s Finals. You know, a Finals that featured the household name Steph Curry and Boston’s ever-popular squad.
If that weren’t enough, Game 2 of the 2023 Finals even had 15.2 million viewers at its peak near the time of the fourth quarter.
🏀 Miami Heat vs. Denver Nuggets #NBAFinals Game 2 on ABC matched last year's average audience for Game 2 – Golden State vs. Boston – with 11,910,000 viewers. (Nielsen)
đź‘€The broadcast peaked at 10:15 p.m. ET with 15,256,000 viewers.
🏆It easily won the night across all of TV. pic.twitter.com/zxeF15YaQx
— Ben Cafardo (@Ben_ESPN) June 6, 2023
Wow. It’s almost as if folks who want to watch high-level basketball on one of the sport’s biggest stages will tune in regardless of the teams featured. Who would’ve thought??? (Everyone. Well, they should’ve!)
It goes to show you that uniform colors like purple, gold, and green don’t need to be seen on screen for the NBA Finals to be a fun time.