The NBA Finals hit a series-high for a third-straight game, but there was barely any growth from Game 4 to Game 5. Monday’s Pacers-Thunder NBA Finals Game 5 averaged a series-high 9.54 million viewers on ABC, down 22% from last year’s Mavericks-Celtics clincher (12.22M) and the least-watched Game 5 of the Finals since Heat-Lakers in the fall 2020 “bubble,” which aired on a Friday night in October (9.19M). Excluding that anomalous circumstance, it was the least-watched Game 5 since Spurs-Nets on a Friday night in 2003 (9.31M). No other Game 5 in the Nielsen people meter era (1988-present) has fallen short of the ten million mark.