ABC on Sunday night aired the most-viewed NBA Finals Game 2 since Michael Jordan’s last trip to the Finals with the Bulls in ’98. Cavaliers-Warriors Game 2, which like Game 1 went to OT, averaged a 10.5 fast-national rating and 18.8 million viewers. That figure is ABC’s best NBA Finals Game 2 audience since ESPN acquired league TV rights prior to the '02-03 season, and best for any Game 2 since Bulls-Jazz drew a 16.6 final rating with 26.3 million viewers on a Friday night in '98 on NBC. Cavs-Warriors Game 2 is up 19% and 26%, respectively, from an 8.8 rating and 14.9 million viewers for Spurs-Heat Game 2 last year. The game also drew 704,000 unique visitors to WatchESPN, marking the app’s second-best NBA game on record after the '13 NBA Finals Game 7 (Austin Karp, Assistant Managing Editor). AD AGE's Anthony Crupi writes while there is "a lot more basketball left to play, ABC is presently on track to break every ratings record in its 13-year stewardship of the NBA Finals." The network is "already outpacing its highest-rated series" -- the first two games of Pistons-Lakers in '04 that averaged a 10.3 rating. That five-game series "would go on to average" a network-high 11.5 rating. Cavaliers-Warriors "puts the lie to the notion that a small-market club spells ratings death in the NBA Finals." Crupi: "Duration is everything" (ADAGE.com, 6/9). In Akron, George Thomas wrote while the Finals "opened with enough storylines for three reality television shows, another was added to the mix after the series opener" when Cavaliers G Kyrie Irving went down with a fractured knee cap. The team's "Big Three" of Irving, LeBron James and Kevin Love now is "down to The Chosen One, James, and certainly the curiosity factor of how the Cavs would play without Irving and a depleted bench" factored into the ratings (OHIO.com, 6/8).
FLASH IN THE PAN? Heat G Dwyane Wade made his NBA Finals pregame show debut Sunday night on ABC, but in N.Y., Bob Raissman writes Wade is the latest is a "long line of 'guest' analysts who are reluctant to deliver the word and wind up flopping." Raissman: "Blame the suits (in this case ESPN) who once again decided it’s a terrific idea to suddenly transform a current player, with high marquee value, into an instant analyst for a championship series." It became "instantly apparent that Wade came to the microphone Sunday night with basically no incentive or pressure to be forthcoming or share any inside insight with viewers." It also is "doubtful this experience will push him any further to a post-playing career in television." It did "not appear Wade was going gaga over getting to work with the 'ESPN on ABC' NBA studio crew" (N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 6/9).
VOICE CONTROL: In Sacramento, Joe Davidson notes Warriors radio play-by-play man Tim Roye "is in his 26th year of NBA broadcasting, the first six with the Kings and the past 20 with the Warriors." When he "listens to a broadcast replay on the way home, Roye has mixed emotions." Roye: "Sometimes I cringe and think, 'Why did I say that?' I'm constantly thinking, 'How can I be better?'" (SACRAMENTO BEE, 6/9).
