The drama surrounding the Knicks and Pacers game was a huge hit for TNT, the network that broadcasted the first game of the Eastern Conference finals on Wednesday night. 

In this thrilling game, the Pacers managed to secure a comeback victory, breaking the hearts of Knicks fans and bringing joy to their Indiana supporters. The game had an average of 6.6 million viewers and reached a peak of 8.5 million at 11 p.m., making it an “instant classic” as announced by the network within 24 hours. 

This game’s viewership marked the highest for an Eastern Conference finals Game 1 in the past seven years. The last time such high viewership was recorded was during the Cavaliers’ game against the Celtics in 2018, which drew an average audience of 7.24 million viewers on ABC. 

The Knicks-Pacers series has seen a 2 percent increase in viewership over last year’s Pacers-Celtics series, which aired on ESPN and ESPN 2 and averaged 6.4 million viewers, Sports Media Watch reported.

The spike in viewers during Wednesday’s game naturally occurred right around the time of the game’s exciting OT finish. 

The NBA is likely happy to see the Pacers and Knicks meeting in the conference finals after the two ran into each other in the playoffs last season, reigniting a classic rivalry that was at its height in the 1990s. 

The series between the rivals also marks the final NBA playoff set — or games for that matter — that will air on TNT. 

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The cable channel is in its final days broadcasting the NBA before the league packs up its basketballs and heads over to NBC and Amazon’s Prime Video as part of a new media rights deal that kicks in next season. 

The new deal will see conference finals games rotate between NBC and the streaming service. 

Kevin Harlan, Reggie Miller and Stan Van Gundy will all be on the call for the remainder of the series as TNT ends its run of broadcasting the NBA.