The Brooklyn Nets and Boston Celtics will play a 44-minute game- four minutes shorter than a regulation NBA game- for their match on Sunday (October 19th) at the Barclays Center.
NBA President of Basketball Operations, Rod Thorn, says the idea to play four 11-minute quarters is only a one-time preseason experiment for now. This, after the length of games was called into question during the recent NBA coaches’ meeting in Chicago.
Each quarter of the Nets and Celtics 44-minute game experiment will have two mandatory timeouts at the first dead ball under 6:59 and the first dead ball under 2:59, and the game will have two fewer mandatory timeouts than a normal game. There are three mandatory timeouts in the second and fourth quarters in a 48-minute game, and the first mandatory timeout comes at the first dead ball under 5:59.
The total time of an average NBA game is about two hours, 15 minutes. Should the NBA decide on playing 44-minute games for an 82-game season, it would eliminate about seven games worth of minutes from a regular season.
The NBA however says it will look further into how the trial 44-minute game impacts the overall length of the game, player-substitution patterns and flow, to determine if the shortened time is feasible before making a decision.
Other posts by Azlyn Balqis
