The Brooklyn Nets and Boston Celtics will experiment with a 44-minute game clock in Sunday's preseason match-up, as the NBA tests out a format that's four minutes shorter than the typical contest.
The NBA competitions committee has spent time looking at different aspects of the game, examining how the league can put a better product on the floor. One option is a shorter game and, though officials admit one exhibition game isn’t the largest sample size,
it could lead to healthier players, ESPN reported.
"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," Rod Thorn, NBA president of basketball operations, 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," the statement continued.
Erik Spoelstra, coach of the Miami Heat, told ESPN that the problem is not length of the games but the length of the season.
"I don't think it's a matter of how long the game is," Spoelstra told ESPN. "I think there's too many games, to be frank. I think if there's some way to find a way to cut out some of the back-to-backs so there aren't 20-plus of them. I think that's the bigger issue, not shaving off four minutes in a particular game. But I'm open to seeing what happens with that."
Former NBA All-Star Reggie Miller took to Twitter to voice his support for the 44-minute game clock.
But Indiana Pacers coach Frank Vogel disagrees.
He told USA Today that playing minutes per game are already at a premium and those lost four minutes are critical for players trying to get on the floor.
"I see why they are doing it . . . but personally I don't really like it," he told reporters Tuesday. "I don't have enough minutes to get all my guys enough minutes to keep them happy. So going to take away four minutes of the game that's going to make my job a lot harder."
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