Raptors-Rockets was the most-watched Raps regular season game in Canada ever

Add the following to the list of records the Raptors are smashing this season.

According to Sportsnet, over 1.67 million people watched at least some part of Friday night’s Toronto vs. Houston Battle of the One-Seeds. The average number of eyeballs on the screen while Raptors basketball was on settled to a nice 552,000. And — much to delight of those jamokes who always want to tell you that you only need to watch the last two minutes of a basketball game to really get it — the viewership peaked at 1.1 million in the contest’s final minutes. That’s a lot of people.

In fact, as reported by Sportsnet, these numbers make it the most-watched Raptors regular season game in Canada..... ever. I say again: in forever.

Let’s take it over to Scott Moore, President of Sportsnet & NHL Properties (say what?), for some additional commentary:

“The excitement for the Raptors is clearly building right across the country. Sportsnet will continue to provide full coverage of the Raptors across all of our platforms and we look forward to, hopefully, an extended playoff run.”

(Exciting and on message; nothing but respect for my Sportsnet president.)

The Raptors won the game 108-105, clinched a playoff spot, further solidified their status as the best team in the East and one of the top three teams in the league. And with fawning piece after fawning piece coming out this week, the Raptors may just have a chance of making it to their first NBA Finals in franchise history.

Hey, we’re talking about smashing records here! We can believe.