Record-Setting LeBron James Night Was Most-Watched TNT Regular Season Telecast In Years

When Los Angeles Lakers All-Star power forward LeBron James lapped Los Angeles Lakers All-Star center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's previous longstanding regular season NBA scoring record a week ago against the Oklahoma City Thunder, it felt like the eyes of the whole NBA fan world were on this historic moment... between the then-12th and 13th seeds in the Western Conference.

It turns out, we weren't far off. Per Richard Deitsch of The Athletic, James's exploits last Tuesday on TNT comprised that network's most-watched regular season NBA game, outside of season openers, by average viewership, since 2018. The contest logged an average of 3 million viewers (peaking with 3.7 million). It was also the most-watched regular season contest on any cable network since a Lakers-Trail Blazers contest on January 31st, 2020.

The current scoring record is now 38,390 points (Abdul-Jabbar's was 38,387), because James has missed LA's last three games with a possibly dire left foot/ankle injury.