NBA will experiment with 44-minute game on Sunday

In an attempt to get a feel for how a shorter game flows, the NBA will run an experiment Sunday when the Boston Celtics visit the Brooklyn Nets for a preseason game.

That contest will last just 44 minutes, consisting of four 11-minute quarters, according to Jeff Zillgitt of USA TODAY Sports. The idea - playing a game four minutes shorter than regulation - reportedly came up at a recent NBA coaches' meeting.

NBA president of basketball operations Rod Thorn explained the trial:

We have looked at everything that we do and are taking a fresh look at all the different things we do. One of the things that keeps coming up is our schedule and the length of our games.… Our coaches talked about it, and a lot of them seemed to be in favor of at least taking a look at it. We talked with our competition committee, and they were in favor of taking a look at it.

The league confirmed the experiment in a formal statement:

The National Basketball Association announced today that it will play a 44-minute game during the 2014 NBA preseason when the Brooklyn Nets host the Boston Celtics at Barclays Center on Oct. 19 (3 p.m. ET, NBA TV). The league is utilizing the preseason contest to examine the flow of a shorter game as compared to the standard 48-minute game.
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Application of the experimental 44-minute game will involve quarters being reduced from their typical 12 minutes each to 11 and a reduction in mandatory timeouts in the second and fourth quarters. During this 44-minute game, 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.

Obviously, the league isn't going to learn a great deal from a solitary preseason game. Unless there are serious complaints, however, it wouldn't be surprising to see the idea tested on a larger scale in the D-League, where the NBA often experiments.

With a shortened game, the mandatory timeout schedule will include two fewer mandatory timeouts overall. Shortening the length of broadcasts is always a topic of discussion, and the league will surely keep an eye on the final run time relative to the approximately two hours, fifteen minutes average.

Even if nothing comes of this, credit the NBA for being open to trying new things and exploring new ways to improve the game. It's refreshing.