NBA Finals: This Year Is Outrating 2008's Matchup

What a disaster that the Orlando Magic beat the Cleveland Cavaliers!

Poor David Stern and the NBA!

Well, we just got the ratings from the folks at Nielsen and check out this news bulletin: Lakers-Magic is outrating last year's ultimate matchup of the Lakers-Celtics.

• More Sports Biz: NBA, ABC Won't Automatically Lose From Matchup

The first three games of this year's NBA finals have averaged 13,797,000 viewers per game. Last year's first three games had an average viewership of 13,791,000.

So much for tradition. So much for markets. So much for star power.

• More From CNBC.com: Media Money Blog

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