Wednesday’s Lakers-Clippers NBA regular season game averaged 1.66 million viewers on ESPN, up 63% from Suns-Clippers last year (1.02M). The Clippers’ win was the only game on ESPN and TNT this week to post an increase over last year, with the Bucks-Bulls lead-in down 25% (to 1.10M), Nuggets-Suns (1.10M) and Heat-Sixers (1.04M) down 33% and 23% respectively on Thursday, and Celtics-Sixers (1.03M) down 14% on Tuesday. Keep in mind Tuesday’s game faced unusually strong cable news competition.