National Basketball Association

LeBron's debut for Heat draws big TV ratings

Published Oct. 27, 2010 11:15 p.m. ET

foxsports

The Heat's new Big Three earned big television ratings.

The debut of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in Tuesday's opener drew the most viewers for an NBA regular-season game in cable history.

TNT said Wednesday that Miami's 88-80 loss to the Eastern Conference champion Boston Celtics had a 4.6 rating and was watched by 7.4 million people. The rating is second only to the 4.9 for the Bulls-Lakers game on Feb. 2, 1996, when Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson met for the first time after both came out of retirement. That game had a smaller audience because of population growth.

Tuesday's opening doubleheader, capped by the champion Los Angeles Lakers' 112-110 win over the Houston Rockets, averaged a 3.5 rating, up 52 percent from last year.

Ratings represent the percentage of all homes with televisions tuned into a program. The early game actually earned a higher rating in Boston (17.1) than in Miami (15.5). It drew a 10.6 in James' jilted former home of Cleveland.