The Miami Heat helped ABC and TNT to strong numbers during the penultimate week of the lockout-shortened NBA season. The April 15 Heat/Knicks NBA regular season game drew a 2.8 final rating and 4.088 million viewers on ABC. There was no game on the comparable date last year. Later in the day, Mavericks/Lakers drew a 3.0 and 4.490 million. Through Thursday, eleven of the fifteen most-viewed NBA games on any network this season either involved the Heat or had a Heat game as a lead-in. Heat/Bulls Earns Over Three Million For TNT: Thursday’s Bulls/Heat game drew 3.417 million viewers on TNT, down 7% from the same matchup on the network a week earlier (MIA/CHI: 3.671M), but still good enough to rank as the tenth most-viewed game of the season on cable. Nine of the ten most-viewed games on cable this season have either involved the Heat or had a Heat game as a lead-in, reports Sports Media Watch.