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NBA In-Season Tournament Final Most-Watched Non-Christmas Day Regular-Season Game In 5+ Years

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James Foglio
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James Foglio Sports Editor

James is a Basketball Insiders contributor. He earned his bachelor's degree in English and Creative Writing from Southern New Hampshire University. James enjoys watching sports and helping gamblers win money.

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Sports Editor

Updated12 Dec 2023

NBA In-Season Tournament Final Most-Watched Non-Christmas Day Regular-Season Game In 5 Years Los Angeles Lakers

The inaugural NBA In-Season Tournament Final last Saturday between the Indiana Pacers and Los Angeles Lakers became the most-watched regular-season non-Christmas Day game on any network in over five years. The audience peaked at 5.68 million viewers on ESPN, per the network.

Viewership was up by 46 percent compared to last year’s game in the same timeslot on the same weekend. Ratings jumped 44% and viewership 46 percent from a Celtics-Warriors 2022 NBA Finals rematch in the same window last season (1.7, 3.14 million) as well.

Referring to a few NBA betting sites, the Los Angeles Lakers hold fifth-best odds to win this season’s championship. Sportsbooks are showing better odds for the Boston Celtics, Denver Nuggets, Milwaukee Bucks, and Phoenix Suns.


The in-season tournament final averaged a 2.5 rating and 4.58 million viewers across ABC (2.2, 4.14 million) and ESPN2 (0.26, 439,000), marking the largest NBA audience before Christmas Day and the NBA playoffs since opening night in 2017 (Celtics-Cavaliers – 5.60 million).

Although the Pacers-Lakers game outperformed the 2023 Heisman Trophy ceremony on ESPN (2.31 million), the final fell short against the Army-Navy matchup (7.18 million) on CBS at 3 p.m. ET. The title game might not have been the most-watched sports event, but it was close enough.

It was the most-viewed NBA League Pass game in history, with viewers watching more than 1.5 hours of the game on average. Plus, the final garnered more than 2.2 billion video views across the NBA’s social-media accounts and app. That’s an 80 percent increase versus last year’s regular-season games.

2023 NBA In-Season Tournament Final draws largest audience before Christmas Day, NBA playoffs since 2017 opening night

TNT’s Lakers-Pelicans telecast on Dec. 7 delivered the most-watched NBA regular season game since opening week, averaging 2.2 million viewers across TNT, TBS, and truTV. Max viewership for the Lakers’ in-season tournament semifinals win was a 66 percent increase over TNT’s average December game telecast last year.

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has advocated for an in-season tournament for years. The goal was to increase ratings in the first half of the regular season. Based on the final numbers coming in, it was a huge success.

“I want to thank all the players in the league, the coaches and of course the teams for embracing this new concept,” Silver said. “I know it doesn’t come without challenges. There’s no doubt there’s some things that we’re learning this time through. Overall, we’re thrilled with the interest we’ve seen so far this season.”


More importantly, the Lakers plan to hang another banner at Crypto.com Arena to recognize winning the inaugural in-season tournament in Las Vegas. However, the organization wants the NBA Cup title banner to have a different design than their championship banners.

“We have an insatiable desire and passion to bring banner No. 18 here,” Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka said at the time, referring to his team’s record-tying 17 NBA titles.

L.A. will unveil the banner at its next home game on Monday, Dec. 18 against the New York Knicks. The Lakers will also honor LeBron James and Anthony Davis for being named to the in-season all-tournament team.

NBA sportsbooks show James with ninth-best odds to win NBA Clutch Player of the Year this season. Oddsmakers are giving better odds to Damian Lillard, Luka Doncic, Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry, and other stars.