As they barrel their way through the first half of the NBA season, the Warriors are making a splash in the television ratings, too.

The three highest-rated regular-season Warriors games in Comcast Sports Net Bay Area history are all from this season, driving an overall 16 percent spike in viewership over last season.

The Warriors’ season-to-date average of a 3.76 rating is comparable to the numbers CSNBA got for the Giants last year (4.08).

“I think a lot of it is the cool factor,” Ted Griggs, the president of CSNBA, said Monday. “This is probably, win or lose, the most entertaining team in the NBA.

“The old adage for the NBA was that all you had to do was watch the last 10 minutes. If you try to do that with the Warriors, you’re going to miss some really exciting stuff.”

The Warriors have the league’s best record (29-5) heading into Tuesday’s game against the Utah Jazz. They’re winning in dynamic style behind guards Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson.

Griggs likened this season’s ratings phenomenon to the Giants of 2010, when momentum built as viewers began to sense a special season was in the works behind characters such as Buster Posey, Tim Lincecum and Brian Wilson.

“It takes a while for a team to hit critical mass, but once they do it’s sort of like a tidal wave and it picks up more and more,” Griggs said. “It becomes part of the larger Bay Area culture where everybody is talking about it and therefore everybody wants to watch it.”

The high-water mark came when the Warriors beat the Houston Rockets on Dec. 10 for their 14th consecutive victory. That earned a 6.43 household rating (159,188 households) to top CSNBA’s previous regular-season Warriors best — a 5.73 rating for a showdown with the Los Angeles Lakers on March 24, 2008.

Overall, that Rockets game was the highest locally produced regular-season Warriors game since Feb. 7, 1996, when KPIX earned an 11.3 for the night Michael Jordan led the Chicago Bulls with 40 points (and Steve Kerr, the future Warriors coach, chipped in with 12).

The recent boost in viewership comes largely from women. Regular-season Warriors ratings among females aged 25-54 is up 49 percent from a year ago, Griggs said.

“It’s higher than we’ve ever seen them,” he said of the female ratings. “That always helps. It’s not just a guy sitting in his Man Cave. It’s a guy, his wife and his kids. … It’s amazing to see the women who are embracing the Warriors as part of their entertainment venue. That’s been great for us, and it opens us up to some advertising opportunities.”

The highest-rated Warriors game ever on CSNBA was May 1 for Game 6 of their playoff series against the Los Angeles Clippers. That got a household rating of 7.03.

Griggs suspects that record could fall if the Warriors continue rolling.

“As the wave gets bigger and bigger, we’re just paddling our little surfboard and trying to ride the wave for all it’s worth,” he said.

Contact Daniel Brown at dbrown@mercurynews.com