NBA slam dunk contest scores big on TV, social media

TORONTO - The slam dunk matchup between Zach LaVine and Aaron Gordon peaked with an average of 7 million viewers as the two put on memorable show Saturday night.

Officials for TNT says the rating peaked between 10:15 and 10:30 p.m. Eastern time, which helped propel the show to a win across all of cable television. LaVine of the Minnesota Timberwolves edged the Orlando Magic's Gordon in a contest that needed two extra dunks to determine a winner.

The NBA also says a record 115 million videos have been viewed across its social media platforms worldwide since that contest, which has widely been hailed as the best in All-Star weekend history.

The league says there was a peak of 50,000 tweets per minute during the dunk contest.