The 2025 NBA Finals are underway between the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Indiana Pacers.
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Game 1 of the Finals on Thursday was a doozy. It saw the Pacers mount an incredible comeback in the fourth quarter, which allowed them to steal home-court advantage and take a 1-0 series lead.
There was much hype heading into Game 2, but the Thunder took care of business in front of their home crowd and ran away with the game. While the Thunder and their fans saw a game that didn’t come down to a nail-biter, it didn’t help the NBA‘s cause.
Game 2 of the Finals on Sunday averaged 8.76 million viewers, marking the lowest viewership since Game 2 of the 2020 Finals and the only Finals since 2007 where viewership declined after Game 1.
Sports Media Watch shared.
“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).”
According to Sports Media Watch, this year’s NBA Finals between the Pacers and Thunder mark just the second time in the Nielsen people meter era where neither Game 1 nor Game 2 surpassed the nine million viewer mark.
Although the numbers may not show it, these NBA Finals have been worth watching. Game 2 was not pretty for the casual fan, but Game 1 was an instant classic that saw the Pacers, as they’ve done all season long, come back and steal that contest.
The series will now shift to Indiana, where the Pacers will look to take advantage of homecourt and feed off the crowd’s energy. The Pacers head into Wednesday’s Game 3 as the home underdogs.
Per ESPN Bet, the Thunder enter Game 3 as 5.5-point favorites. The Pacers have embraced the underdog role throughout this entire postseason, and by now, it’s nothing new to them. Friday will mark Indiana’s first NBA Finals home game in 25 years.
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