Game 5 got 6 million viewers. Game 4 of the NBA final got 15 million.
I don't have the time to look up everything and "back it up" right now with links, but keep two very important things in mind:
1) While it is absolutely true that the NBA Finals have gotten much better ratings in recent year (largely due to the Heat and Lakers), the
NHL and NBA's rating are almost identical during their long regular seasons (80 and 82 games). Don't forget, the NBA All-Star is on cable, because the ratings are never good....The gap, also, isn't great in the earlier rounds of the playoffs.
2) I posted in 2012 that a significant chunk of the NBA ratings are due to a tsunami of black males ( who only comprise about 6% of the population in this country) that watch the regular season and playoffs from beginning to end. Take out that 6%, who are not all that attractive to advertisers due to high unemployment rates (ect.), and the
NHL's ratings might even beat the NBA's ratings with the other 94% of the U.S.' population during the regular seasons and early playoffs.
http://www.castefootball.us/forums/showthread.php/14728-Top-25-Cable-Shows-in-Black-Households
So basically, what happens is black men love basketball and the NBA and account for most of their ratings from November all the way through May. Then "whitey" finally shows up in fairly large numbers around June to watch the NBA finals and gives them "real impressive ratings" for a few weeks (NBA finals). But, again,
do not forget the mediocre-to-poor NBA ratings from November to early June.