The official numbers are out and last night’s Miami-Boston game was the most watched regular season NBA game on cable of all-time (topping Chicago-LA Lakers on Feb. 2, 1996), earning a 4.6 US rating with 7,433,000 total viewers in 5,339,000 households.

Despite the late tip-off, Rockets-Lakers delivered a 2.4 US rating with 3,719,000 total viewers in 2,823,000 households, making it the most watched NBA Opening Night doubleheader (averaging 3.5 US rating, 5,493,000 total viewers and 4,025,000 households) for Turner Sports in their 27 years of tipping off the NBA season.

TNT saw double digit growth in ratings, total viewers, households and all key demos over last year’s record setting season openers between Boston-Cleveland and the LA Lakers-LA Clippers.

Locally, Boston led the way with a 17.1 HH rating, followed by Miami (15.5), Los Angeles (9.7) and Houston (7.4).

Cleveland fans were even curious about the debut of LeBron James on the Miami Heat, delivering a 10.6 HH local rating.

A great start for TNT and the NBA in what’s turning out to be one of the most anticipated  basketball seasons in recent history.