NBA to try 44-minute game

New York, NY (SportsNetwork.com) – In an experiment to potentially shorten the length of games, the National Basketball Association will play a 44-minute contest when the Brooklyn Nets host the Boston Celtics at Barclays Center on Oct. 19.

The league is utilizing this preseason contest to examine the flow of a shorter game as compared to the standard 48-minute game.

“At our recent coaches’ meeting, we had a discussion about the length of our games, and it was suggested that we consider experimenting with a shorter format,” said NBA president of basketball operations Rod Thorn. “After consulting with our competition committee, we agreed to allow the Nets and Celtics to play a 44-minute preseason game in order to give us some preliminary data that will help us to further analyze game-time lengths.”

During this experiment, the quarters will be shortened from 12 minutes to 11 minutes with a reduction of timeouts in the second and fourth quarters. Each quarter will feature two mandatory timeouts per quarter, with the first triggered at the first dead ball under 6:59 of the period if neither team has taken a timeout prior, and the second mandatory timeout will be triggered by the first dead ball under 2:59 if neither team has taken a timeout subsequent to the first mandatory timeout.

In the NBA’s 48-minute game, the second and fourth quarters have three mandatory timeouts.

Categorized in: NBA