ESPN and TNT add January games between NBA powerhouses

Two January games between two of the NBA’s top teams will now be available for league fans to watch across the country.

Heading into Friday’s games, the Cleveland Cavaliers have the best record in the Eastern Conference (and the NBA overall) at 21-4, while the Oklahoma City Thunder have the best record in the Western Conference at 19-5. Their two regular season meetings will take place just over a week apart, with the Cavs hosting the Thunder on Wednesday, January 8th and the Oklahoma City game being played on Thursday, January 16th. These games were scheduled until Friday. They are exclusively local broadcasts.

That changed on Friday. The Athletic’s Mike Vorkunov reported that the Jan. 8 game will now be broadcast on ESPN (vs. the Toronto Raptors at the New York Knicks), while the Jan. 16 game will be broadcast on TNT (vs. the Phoenix Suns at the Washington Wizards). is transmitted.

The NBA will broadcast two Cavaliers-Thunder games on national television. The January 8th game is now airing on ESPN and the January 16th game is now airing on TNT.

Knicks-Raptors on January 8th is booted by ESPN and Suns-Wizards on January 16th by TNT.

— Mike Vorkunov (@MikeVorkunov) December 13, 2024

It’s not a big surprise that the Phoenix is ​​backing down in Washington. While the Suns have plenty of star power (despite a mixed season so far), the 3-19 Wizards are the worst team in the NBA and hardly a major national draw.

As for the Jan. 8 game, the lack of national broadcasts (in the United States) was a sore point for team president Masai Ujiri, even during Toronto’s peak championship pursuit in the late 2010s. However, beating this game is far more notable because it involves the Knicks at Madison Square Garden – something ESPN has focused heavily on in the recent past.

Beating the Knicks for a game that doesn’t involve a big market team or an established odds draw like LeBron James or Steph Curry shows how good the Cavs and Thunder have been this year.

(Mike Vorkunov on X)