The Miami Heat’s win to stay alive against the Boston Celtics has drawn the highest preliminary television rating for an NBA playoff game on cable since records started being kept in 2003.
Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals Thursday night on ESPN produced an 8.2 overnight rating. The previous high was a 7.9 for Sunday’s Game 4. The network said Friday the 8.2 was up 49 percent from the most recent conference finals Game 6 on ESPN, Boston-Orlando in 2010.
In Miami, the game had a 22.0 rating, the highest on cable for an NBA playoff game in the market since records started being kept in 2003.
Ratings represent the percentage of all homes with televisions tuned into a program. Overnight ratings measure the country’s largest markets.
