Sunday’s Heat/Lakers NBA regular season game drew a 4.3 final rating and 7.037 million viewers on ABC, up 34% in ratings and 37% in viewership from last year (LAL/SA: 3.2, 5.120M), and up 105% and 122%, respectively, from a 2010 game in an earlier timeslot (LAL/ORL: 2.1, 3.176M). Excluding Christmas Day games, Heat/Lakers ranks as the most-viewed NBA regular season game on ABC since the network acquired rights to the league in 2002, topping the previous high of 7.003 million for Celtics/Lakers in January 2011. The last non-Christmas game on broadcast to earn a larger audience was Lakers/Trail Blazers on NBC in February 2002 (7.590M), a game that had a lead-in from the Daytona 500. Overall, the game ranks as the third-most viewed non-Christmas game since the current TV deal went into effect, behind Heat/Cavaliers in December 2010 (7.052M, TNT) and Heat/Celtics in October 2010 (7.348M, TNT). When Christmas Day games are included, Heat/Lakers ranks as the thirteenth-most viewed game dating back to 2002. Of the fifteen most-viewed regular season games since 2002, eleven involved the Lakers, seven involved the Heat, and four — including the two most-viewed games — were Heat/Lakers matchups. Already this season, six NBA games on ABC have earned at least a 3.0 rating, just shy of last year’s full-season total (seven) and double the full-season total two years ago (three). That does not include Sunday’s Knicks/Celtics game, which earned a 4.3 overnight and will likely finish with at least a 3.0 when the final ratings are released, reports Sports Media Watch.