The National Basketball Association revealed that the Boston Celtics vs Brooklyn Nets preseason match will be a 44-minute match instead of the regular 48-minute game.
The league said in a statement that the decision was made as part of the league's study on reducing the playing minutes in an actual game and reducing the number of matches in a season.
NBA president of basketball operations Rod Thorn said that the idea came out when coaches talked about the possible benefits of having a shortened game. To test the difference between a 48-minute and 44-minute game, Thorn said that then Competition Committee unanimously agreed to conduct the experiment on Sunday.
"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," Thorn said in a statement. "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."
Instead of the usual 12-minute quarter, the Celtics and Nets will engage in four 11-minute periods with two mandatory timeouts in the second and fourth period instead of the usual three. The first mandatory timeout will be made under the 6:59 mark if no team has called timeout prior to that and the second one will be after the 2:59 mark if no timeout has been asked after the first mandatory timeout.
"When this idea came up at the coaches' meeting, I thought it was a unique experiment that was worth participating in," Nets coach Lionel Hollins said. "I'm looking forward to gauging its impact on the flow of the game. Since there is a shorter clock, it affects playing time, so it'll be interesting to see how it plays into substitution patterns."
The 44-minute game will put NBA games closer to international and collegiate games that are both played for 40 minutes. It could be beneficial to players, but could also affect both coaches' game plan on Sunday.
"I appreciate the NBA's long history of forward thinking and willingness to try new ideas," Celtics coach Brad Stevens said. "We told the NBA that we'd be happy to participate in this trial during a preseason game. I look forward to experiencing it and continuing the dialogue after October 19."
