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Celtics-Nets to play 44-minute preseason game
Jeff Hawkins is an award-winning sportswriter with more than four decades in the industry (print and digital media). A freelance writer/stay-at-home dad since 2008, Hawkins started his career with newspaper stints in Michigan, North Carolina, Florida, Upstate New York and Illinois, where he earned the 2004 APSE first-place award for column writing (under 40,000 circulation). As a beat writer, he covered NASCAR Winston Cup events at NHIS (1999-2003), the NHL's Chicago Blackhawks (2003-06) and the NFL's Carolina Panthers (2011-12). Hawkins penned four youth sports books, including a Michael Jordan biography. Hawkins' main hobbies include mountain bike riding, 5k trail runs at the Whitewater Center in Charlotte, N.C., and live music.
All posts by Jeff HawkinsUpdated15 Oct 2021
A weekend preseason date between the Boston Celtics and Brooklyn Nets will be a trial case for an abbreviated game length of 44 minutes.
The game Sunday at Barclays Center will be reduced as the NBA examines “the flow of a shorter game as compared to the standard 48-minute game.”
Four 11-minute quarters and a reduction in mandatory media timeouts the second and fourth quarters could expedite the 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,” NBA President of Basketball Operations Rod Thorn said. “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.”
Two mandatory timeouts per quarter remain in place — 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.
Typically, there are three mandatory timeouts in the second and fourth quarters.
“When this idea came up at the coaches’ meeting, I thought it was a unique experiment that was worth participating in,” said Nets coach Lionel Hollins. “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.”
