Malik Monk (left) of the Sacramento Kings and Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors

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The NBA playoffs began with their best TV numbers since LeBron James was in his first year with the Miami Heat.

The opening games of the eight first-round series averaged 4.15 million viewers across ABC, ESPN and TNT. That’s a 3 percent improvement on last year’s games and the best for the playoffs’ opening weekend since 2011 (with the caveat that out of home viewing has only been rolled into those averages for the past three years).

The series opener between the Sacramento Kings, making their first playoff appearance since 2006, and defending champion Golden State Warriors had the largest audience of the weekend. That game, in primetime Saturday on ABC, averaged 6.26 million viewers. Two other games — Lakers-Grizzlies on ABC Sunday afternoon (5.54 million) and Clippers-Suns Sunday night on TNT (5.04 million) — also topped the 5 million-viewer mark.

Last week’s play-in round, featuring the seventh through 10th seeds in each conference, also improved on last year’s ratings: The four games averaged 2.64 million viewers, up 5 percent from 2022 and led by the 3.47 million who watched the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Minnesota Timberwolves in overtime on TNT.

The uptick for the start of the playoffs follows a regular season that posted flat year-to-year ratings. Games on ESPN, TNT and ABC averaged about 1.6 million viewers, in line with the league’s 2021-22 average despite the continued decline in TV households with cable subscriptions (which are down about 5 percent year to year).

The first round of the playoffs runs through April 30 at the latest. Conference semifinal and final rounds will follow, leading to the NBA Finals in June.