NEW YORK -- Ratings for the first game of the NBA finals dropped 15 percent from last season's opener.

Wednesday night's game, a 99-94 win by the Los Angeles Lakers over the New Jersey Nets, drew a 10.6 rating with a 20 share. Last year's game, a 107-106 overtime win by Philadelphia over Los Angeles, drew a 12.4-23.

This year's is comparable to the first game two seasons ago between the Lakers and the Indiana Pacers, which drew a 10.5 rating with an 18 share.

The highest rating was 35.4 in Los Angeles. But the New York market, which includes the Nets' home area of northern New Jersey, had a 14.4, lower than cities such as Chicago, Indianapolis, Memphis and New Orleans.

The rating is the percentage of all homes with TVs, whether or not they are in use. The share measures sets in use. Each rating point equals a little more than 1 million households.

In other ratings, Fox's initial weekend of baseball was up 22 percent from last season, led by strong games that included Boston at the New York Yankees and Los Angeles at Arizona.

Fox said the four-game regionalized schedule drew 3.8 million viewers, up from 3.1 million a year ago. The rating was 2.7 with a 9 share, 8 percent more than the 2.5-8 last season.