Los Angeles Lakers’ 127-101 victory over the Golden State Warriors scored a 2.1 demo rating and 6.39 million viewers Christmas night – a 17% gain over early stats for last year’s Xmas night NBA game.

The matchup, between the Golden State Warriors, who’ve won 3 of the last 4 league titles, and the L.A. Lakers, who this season added the game’s biggest star LeBron James, also was the only original broadcast TV programming. Not surprisingly it clocked the night’s biggest crowd, followed by game’s lead-out: ABC’s Black-ish repeat (1.0, 3.281M).

NBC’s broadcast of 2000’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas (0.9, 3.116M) slipped from last year’s 1.3M in the demo. But, NBC noted it’s the top rated Big 4 theatrical or made-for broadcast of the past six months in the demo. The Jim Carrey starrer followed NBC’s encore telecast of the 1966 animated special How the Grinch Stole Christmas (0.7, 3.025M) from 8-8:30 PM ET.

(One night earlier, on Christmas Eve, NBC’s 44th telecast of Frank Capra holiday classic It’s A Wonderful Life (0.8 demo rating, 4.403 million viewers) won every half hour of primetime among the Big 4 in all key measures, climbing by 50% in the demo across its broadcast, and gaining about 1M viewers overall.)

ABC (1.9, 5.872M) topped Christmas night, followed by NBC (0.8, 3.142M) in the demo; CBS (0.4, 3.593M) which aired repeats of regular series, finished second for the night in total viewers. Rerun broadcasting Fox (0.2, 1.220M) and CW (0.2, 786K) followed.