Lakers games continue to attract huge television ratings for the NBA, a league that has been struggling with low ratings and bad publicity.

ESPN's coverage of Boston vs. Los Angeles on March 8 averaged the most viewers for a regular-season NBA game since 2018 (excluding Christmas).

On Saturday evening, the Boston Celtics hosted the Los Angeles Lakers in what was one of the most anticipated regular season matchups in recent NBA memory. The Celtics controlled this game throughout and ended up holding on for dear life down the stretch, as Lakers star LeBron James left the game due to a groin strain.

The Boston Celtics defeated the Los Angeles Lakers on Saturday night by a score of 111-101 in one of the most highly anticipated regular season games of the year. After the dust settled on this game, the NBA issued a big announcement on the viewership numbers for this game, and they quickly caught fans' attention.

The game, which peaked at 5.3 million viewers, averaged 4.61 million viewers on ABC, topping the previous high of 4.64 million for a Celtics-Cleveland Cavaliers game in Feb. 2018. It was also the most-watched primetime program on Saturday night.

ESPN’s coverage of the Boston Celtics 111-101 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers on the March 8 edition of NBA Saturday Primetime on ABC Presented by Wingstop averaged 4,605,000 viewers, making

The showdown last Saturday between the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers became the most watched NBA regular season game (excluding Christmas Day games) in seven years, per NBA Communications. The NBA primetime game,