• by Wayne Friedman , December 29, 2008

ABC got a nice gift on Christmas Day from a NBA game that featured a rematch of last year's finals--this time where the Los Angeles Lakers took a thrilling win over the Boston Celtics.

ABC earned the highest regular-season NBA basketball game in four years--a Nielsen Media Research 9.96 million viewers and a 5.3 household rating.

The game was 51% higher than the late NBA Christmas game of a year ago, which featured the Lakers playing the Phoenix Suns. That game brought in 5.98 million viewers and scored a 3.5 household rating.

ABC ran two games last year--the early game between Miami and Cleveland pulled in 5.02 million viewers and a 3.1 household rating.

Later on Christmas night, in prime time, the networks were in virtual repeat mode--except for NBC, which ran a special two-hour Christmas-inspired "Deal or No Deal" and grabbed a tie for the night's best ratings among 18-49 viewers, a Nielsen average 1.7 rating/6 share. A repeat of CBS' "CSI" also earned the same numbers and the highest total viewers of the night, with 8.3 million.

For the night, NBC tied CBS for a win, with a 1.4/5. ABC was at a 1.1/4, Fox earned a 1.0/4, and CW brought in a 0.5/2.