Heat-Spurs Game 6 scores major ratings for ABC

Game 6 marked an historic night for ABC. (Noah Graham/Getty Images)

The NBA Finals Game 6 overtime thriller between the Miami Heat and San Antonio Spurs on Tuesday night was among the most-watched basketball games ever on ABC.

According to a report Wednesday morning from NBA.com, citing Nielsen ratings, last night's game, which ended in 103-100 overtime win for the Heat, was the second highest-rated NBA Finals Game 6 ever on ABC. It also came in as the fourth highest-rated game ever on the network. The only NBA games to rank higher than Game 6 on Tuesday, in terms of ratings, are Boston Celtics-Los Angeles Lakers Game 7 in 2010 (18.2); Los Angeles Lakers-Detroit Pistons Game 5 in 2004 (15.5); and Miami Heat-Dallas Mavericks Game 6 in 2011 (15.0).

ROSENBERG: Pushed to brink, LeBron refuses to let Spurs win a title

Although official ratings have not yet been confirmed for all television programs on Tuesday evening, the report said it is expected that Game 6 will mark the 36th consecutive time an NBA Finals broadcast has beat out all other programs for the night. It is also expected that it will be the 24th straight time a game has delivered double-digit overnight ratings for the network, peaking at 19.8 from 11:45 p.m. - midnight.

In terms of local ratings, San Antonio scored a 47.6 metered market rating and Miami had a 35.4 rating. With a 4.4 overnight rating, ABC's NBA Countdown pre-game show came in 16 percent higher than the pre-game show before last year's Game 6.

GALLERY: SI's Best Shots of the NBA Finals