Sunday’s Nets-Celtics game was 44 minutes long, four 11-minute quarters. There were also two less timeouts, the third mandatory one in the second and fourth quarters. This experiment was done to examine the flow of a shorter game compared to the standard 48-minute game.
The game lasted 1 hour and 58 minutes, a bit less than the NBA average of 2 hours and 15 minutes per game.
Nets Head Coach Lionel Hollins was asked if the game felt shorter, and he said, “No, not really. When you’re coaching I look up there and when we’re already to the first time outs, that was kind of surprising. That was the only time it seemed like it was quick, but other than that I didn’t really notice.”
Celtics Head Coach Brad Stevens said, “You noticed it a little bit when you are subbing at the start of quarters, but I thought with the flow with the one less time out was actually a little bit better in the second and fourth. I didn’t notice it other than that. When I am subbing and I’m looking at the clock and it’s seven or six on the clock, and I have to get myself back on that only five minutes has gone on if it says six on the clock. That is a little bit different, but I had it mapped out so I kind of knew what I was going to do. I didn’t notice it a whole lot and I don’t know how much impact it had on the game.”
Celtics forward Jared Sullinger said, “Yeah, I looked up, I’m so used to seeing 12, so I looked up and saw that it was like five-something left on the clock. I was like man; normally I come out around the seven-minute mark. And they were like no it’s an 11-minute game. Then I was like aw that explains everything. So, it was kind of weird, four minutes less. Just happy we won.”
Celtics forward Jeff Green on if he noticed it, “Not at all. When you are playing you don’t really think about it too much. So, I didn’t feel a difference at all. No, I’m just glad that we got the win. I think we did a good job of turning the tables in the second half. We came back out as a team and we won as a team.”
Nets forward Andrei Kirilenko said of how he felt playing in a shortened game, “To be honest, when you’re playing 48 minutes or 40 minutes, it doesn’t really make a difference.” On if the game felt shorter than usual, he said, “I think it’s only because of the free throws. If you don’t have a lot of free throws, the game goes faster. The extra four minutes, I don’t think is going to affect the game much.”