NEW YORK -- The Detroit Shock's victory over the Los Angeles Sparks in Game 3 of the WNBA Finals on Tuesday night produced the highest rating ever for one of the league's games on ESPN2.

The 0.81 rating for Detroit's 83-78 win was almost double the previous high of 0.44, set on Aug. 27, 2001, when Los Angeles beat the Sacramento Monarchs 93-62, and tied earlier in this year's playoffs when Detroit defeated Cleveland 76-74. The network has broadcast a total of 55 WNBA games.

ESPN2 is carried in about 85.6 million homes -- about 2 million fewer than ESPN. Each rating point for the cable network represents about 856,000 households.

ESPN2 carried Games 1 and 3 of the finals, receiving an average rating of 0.59. Game 2 was shown on ABC on Sunday. This was the first year the games shown by the cable network were aired exclusively on ESPN2.