Viewership for the first round was up 30 percent from last year.

"We actually couldn't be more pleased," Commissioner David Stern said on a conference call Monday. "We're actually a little surprised, but pleasantly."

First-round games on ABC, ESPN and TNT were watched by an average of 4.15 million people, up from fewer than 3.2 million last year.

The big jump came on top of already-strong ratings. In 2007, the first round averaged fewer than 2.7 million viewers.

To this point of the playoffs, TNT has drawn the highest average rating ever for games on cable. The network's 23 games averaged a 2.7 rating -- representing the percentage of American homes with televisions tuned in -- easily eclipsing the previous high of 2.3 in 2009.