National Basketball Association

Heat-Pacers Game 7 sets TNT ratings record

Published Jun. 4, 2013 9:55 p.m. ET

foxsports

With the Miami Heat playing in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals, fewer television viewers tuned in than last year.

The Heat's 99-76 win over the Indiana Pacers on Monday night still drew the highest rating ever for an NBA game on TNT with a 7.1.

The 11.5 million viewers were down from 13.3 million for Miami's Game 7 victory over the Celtics last season on ESPN. Boston is a much larger market than Indianapolis, and the Celtics have more of a national following than the Pacers. That decisive game was also more competitive than Monday's, when the Heat led by 15 points at halftime.

The series averaged 8.4 million viewers, the network said Tuesday. That's up 8 percent from last year's Thunder-Spurs Western Conference finals on TNT that went only six games.

Ratings measure the percentage of U.S. homes with televisions tuned to a program.