While Heat sellout streak extends into 16th season, TV ratings plummet. And Heat nuggets
Despite winning just 34 of 64 home games since the start of last season, the Heat has a long waiting list for season tickets and has sold every ticket to 620 regular-season games in a row, a stretch dating to 2010 and the fourth-longest streak in NBA history.
But the Heat’s erratic play — which has led to a 25-28 record at the All Star break — seems to have had a corrosive impact in one tangible reflection of interest in the product: television ratings.
According to Sports Business Journal, Heat TV ratings in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale market this season have plunged by a stunning 56 percent through Feb. 1, compared with ratings for the first three-plus months of last season, when Miami was coming off an NBA Finals appearance but ultimately was eliminated in the first round against Boston after a 46-36 regular season.
Only the Chicago Bulls have a bigger ratings decline from last season, a drop of 63 percent.
FanDuel Sports Network Sun declined to comment on the ratings drop or indicate whether ratings have continued to plummet during Miami’s ongoing four-game losing streak.
One likely factor: Comcast Xfinity, which is in more South Florida homes than any other cable or satellite service, has placed FanDuel Sports Sun on a tier requiring an additional charge beginning this season. That is costing fans about $20 a month in charges that didn’t exist previously.
The ratings don’t include the unspecified number of viewers who stream games on the FanDuel Sports platform.
Heat games soon will be available to stream on Amazon Prime Video, for a price similar to what FanDuel charges to stream the games.
A couple of other NBA media notes:
▪ ESPN dropped Sunday’s Heat-Bucks game and replaced it with Memphis-Cleveland. That leaves Miami with three remaining national TV appearances this season — road games at Cleveland, the Knicks and Boston. Sunday’s tipoff in Wisconsin was moved from 5:30 to 6 p.m. Eastern Time.
▪ With TNT no longer carrying games after this season, NBC will take over coverage of the entire All-Star weekend next year, which will fall during NBC’s Winter Olympics coverage. Former NBA star Carmelo Anthony will be one of the network’s primary studio analysts, as The Athletic reported.
▪ Shaquille O’Neal agreed to a $15 million annual extension with Turner, which means that every member of the “Inside the NBA” cast — O’Neal, Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith and Ernie Johnson Jr. — will be under contract next season, when TNT will begin sublicensing the program to ESPN.
This and that
▪ Only four available players on the Heat have a positive plus/minus entering the post All Star break, which begins Friday at Toronto (7:30 p.m., FanDuel Sports Sun).
Miami has outscored teams by 55 points with Alec Burks on the court, by 51 with Duncan Robinson playing, by 10 with Pelle Larsson on the floor and by one with Keshad Johnson, who has logged only 57 minutes.
Jaime Jaquez Jr. has the Heat’s worst plus/minus at minus-150, and Terry Rozier is next worst at minus-115. Haywood Highsmith is third worst at minus 44.
The Heat’s best plus/minus belongs to Jimmy Butler, who is a plus 58 with Miami and a plus 9 in his first four games with the Warriors.
▪ While the Heat is 0-4 since trading Butler (Andrew Wiggins has played in two of those games), the Warriors are 3-1 since the trade.
“He’s a franchise-changer,” Warriors power forward Draymond Green said of Butler. “He’s done that everywhere he’s gone and he is helping revitalize what we got here. The belief amongst this team, now that he’s arrived, as opposed to what it was before he got here, it’s night and day.”
Butler is averaging 21 points, 7 rebounds, and 5 assists per game in his four games. Per Bay Area radio host Marc Grandy, Wiggins has averaged those averages only once in any four-game stretch in his career, as a rookie.
“Jimmy is the real deal,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “Just a complete basketball player, methodical, under control all the time, plays at his own pace, never turns it over, sees the game and then can get to the line frequently. Great closer, not in the traditional sense where he’s going to be Kevin Durant and make four straight midrange jumpers, but it’s more of a complete game. Get to the line, make the right pass, get somebody else an open look, get a defensive stop, get a rebound. He’s a fantastic player.”
▪ Wiggins, who missed the final game before the All Star break with a stomach flu that has afflicted part of the team, is shooting 7 for 24 in his first two games with the Heat -- his worst two-game stretch since Thanksgiving week.
Wiggins has six games of 27 or more points this season, including 31 against Washington on Jan. 18, and Miami badly needs that offensive lift. The Heat ranks 21st in points per 100 possessions (111.2) and 24th in points per game at 109.8.
Wiggins has shot just 4 for his last 23 on three-pointers, including two games with the Warriors and two with the Heat. He’s shooting 37.2 percent on threes this season, compared with 35.6 percent in his career.
▪ Among players who have logged significant minutes for the Heat, Burks leads the team, from a defensive standpoint, in lowest field-goal percentage by the player he’s defending (39.2 percent) and Jaquez is second at 40.2.
Center Kel’el Ware is allowing players to shoot 49.3 percent, worst among Heat rotation players aside from Wiggins, who has yielded 13-for-25 shooting in his first two games with the Heat. As perspective, players defended by Bam Adebayo are shooting 47.2 percent.
This story was originally published February 17, 2025 at 4:51 PM.
