Prior to this past weekend, the last time the NBA staged a Finals game on a Saturday was 1981.
That game was on May 9 of that year. Larry Bird and the Celtics beat Moses Malone’s Houston Rockets 94-71 in Game 3 in front of 16,121 fans at The Summit — now a Houston megachurch’s main building — en route to what would be Boston’s 14th NBA title.
The NBA Finals that year were the NBA’s lowest rated to that point, with a 6.7 rating average, mainly because four of the six games were aired on tape delay by CBS. The only lower ratings averaged since were 2003 (6.5 for the San Antonio Spurs’ 4-2 win over the New Jersey Nets); 2007 (6.