ABC earned a 5.2 overnight Nielsen rating for Game One of the Pacers-Heat NBA Eastern Conference Semifinal series yesterday, marking the top-rated sports telecast of the weekend, but down from the comparable Heat-Celtics opener last year, which drew a 7.0 overnight. Earlier in the day, ABC drew a 3.8 overnight for Clippers-Grizzlies Western Conference First Round Game Seven. There was no comparison to last year (Austin Karp, THE DAILY).
NICE COVERAGE: In Denver, Dusty Saunders writes he was “struck by the excellent camera work of both” TNT and Altitude Sports & Entertainment during their coverage of the Lakers-Nuggets playoff series. The play-by-play talent and analysts “were basically on the same game page.” Both nets “provided up-close replays of key plays along with scenes of the big guys battling under the basket.” TNT occasionally “used a wide-ranging floor angle camera, which provided viewers with an electronic ‘you are there’ first-row view of the action.” In previous playoff years, TNT and ESPN “too often treated Denver as a poor NBA cousin arriving late to a family party dominated by famous, well-heeled members.” Saunders also writes, “Credit ‘homers’ Scott Hastings and Chris Marlowe of Altitude for not going overboard in their obvious desire to see the Nuggets win” (DENVER POST, 5/14).
