Report: Cavs-Thunder heavyweight clash boosted NBA’s ratings and propelled ‘Cleveland Cavaliers’ to No. 1 trending topic

Maybe the most thrilling game of the 2024-25 NBA regular season to this point was played between the Cleveland Cavaliers and Oklahoma City Thunder on Jan. 8. The contest featured eight ties and 30 lead changes, and some of the league’s brightest stars — including Shai Gilgeous-Alexander — showed out.

Behind 25 points, 11 rebounds and six assists from Cavaliers big man Jarrett Allen, Cleveland won the contest by seven points and thus snapped Oklahoma City’s 15-game winning streak.

Considering two teams that are off to incredibly strong starts to the season did battle on Wednesday, it shouldn’t come as a shock that the game drew incredible ratings. The game averaged 1.87 million viewers and peaked at 2.5 million watchers.

Fans will soon get another chance to see Oklahoma City and Cleveland play each other to boot. The Cavaliers will seek their second win of the season over the Thunder when they take on the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference at Paycom Center on Jan. 16.

“The much-anticipated OKC-CLE game averaged 1.87 million viewers on ESPN Wednesday night, up +20% vs. the comparable window last year,” an X post from NBA PR reads. “The game peaked with 2.5 million viewers. The back-and-forth contest which featured 30 lead changes propelled the Cleveland Cavaliers to the No. 1 trending topic worldwide on X during the game.

“The teams face off for ‘The Rematch’ next Thursday, Jan. 16 at 7:30 p.m. ET on @NBAonTNT.”

It’s quite possible that neither the Thunder nor the Cavaliers will pick up another loss until they meet again in less than a week.

The Cavaliers are winners of each of their last 12 contests and have a pair of games against the Indiana Pacers before they take on the Thunder. Conversely, Oklahoma City has games against the New York Knicks, Washington Wizards and Philadelphia 76ers on its schedule leading up to the showdown.

Despite the fact that the Cavaliers and Thunder have been stacking up wins like Legos, they still have yet to prove that they can carve out deep playoff runs with their current cores. The start of the 2025 NBA Playoffs is still months away, and both teams are on the heels of second-round exits in last year’s playoffs.

The Cavaliers were bounced by the Boston Celtics in five games, while the Thunder lost to the Dallas Mavericks in six games.

The Jan. 16 matchup between Cleveland and Oklahoma City could potentially be equally as entertaining as the Jan. 8 bout, and the Cavaliers can head into that game with a 14-game winning streak if they can beat the Pacers twice in the coming days.