Prior to the NBA trading deadline, the basketball world was sent into a state of shock when All-Star guard Luka Dončić was traded by the Dallas Mavericks to the Los Angeles Lakers as part of a three-team deal. Dončić, a five-time All-Star and last season’s scoring champion, had been sidelined for the last month and a half with a calf injury, but he made his long-awaited debut for his new team on Monday night. Ahead of Dončić taking the floor, the Lakers game against the Utah Jazz was moved to ESPN, the second attempt to televise the occurrence nationally after he and superstar forward LeBron James had been held out of the Saturday matchup.
With Dončić and James in the starting lineup for Monday’s game from Crypto.com Arena, the Lakers-Jazz game averaged 2.01 million viewers on ESPN, according to data from Nielsen Media Research. This contest finished first on the day in various key demographics, including Persons and Males ages 18-34, 18-49 and 25-54, and it also marked the most-watched NBA game on cable in over two months.
The return of guard Klay Thompson to face the Golden State Warriors at Chase Center had averaged 2.14 million viewers in early November, a game that ironically included Dončić on the Mavericks. The 19-point Lakers victory peaked with 2.55 million viewers during the 11:15 p.m. EST quarter-hour and ranks fifth among NBA games exclusive to cable this season.
In a corresponding decision to air the Lakers-Jazz game, ESPN moved the end of the Baylor-Houston college basketball game to its ESPNU linear network. The game had averaged 758,000 viewers prior to the shift, which ended in a 76-65 win for the Cougars. Dončić played 24 minutes for the Lakers, scoring 14 points on 5-for-14 shooting with five rebounds and four assists on a minutes restriction.
The next national television game featuring the Lakers will take place on Saturday, Feb. 22 when the team faces the Denver Nuggets in prime time television on ABC at 8:30 p.m. EST. Shortly thereafter, Dončić and the Lakers will face the Mavericks on TNT, marking the first time he will face his former team. Anthony Davis, who was traded by the Lakers to the Mavericks in the deal, is likely to be without the star forward after he suffered an adductor injury during his debut.
Data from the Nielsen Big Data + Panel indicates that Dončić’s debut finished above the national average audience for NBA games of 1.77 million viewers. A recent report from Tom Friend of Sports Business Journal divulges that viewership during the month of February is up by double digits compared to the previous month. This measurement system recently garnered accreditation from the Media Rating Council, and the company’s out-of-home measurement methodologies now cover 100% of the U.S. contiguous television population.
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