http://www.sbnation.com/nba/2015/6/5/8735349/2015-nba-finals-ratings-cavaliers-vs-warriors

The 2015 NBA Finals are off to a great start -- at least from a ratings perspective. Thursday's opening game between the Cleveland Cavaliers and Golden State Warriors drew the highest Game 1 ratings ever on ABC with an overnight rating of 12.9, up 24 percent from last season's Miami Heat-San Antonio Spurs series.

The impressive rating to start off the Finals is good news for the NBA, which has seen ratings decline for the past three years. The league's three major carriers -- ABC, ESPN and TNT -- each reported this was their least-watched season of NBA basketball since 2007-08. The playoffs haven't been kind to the NBA up to this point either, with 51 of 75 games declining from last year's ratings entering the Finals.