Celtics and Nets largely unaffected by experimental 44-minute game

Adding some small degree of excitement to what would have been a dull, mundane preseason game at the Barclays Center, the league conducted an experiment with the Celtics and Nets playing 11-minute quarters on Sunday.

In addition to the one fewer minute per quarter, there were two media timeouts in the second and fourth quarters instead of the normal three. The shorter 44-minute long game, the first one in NBA history, ended in a pleasant one hour and 58 minutes with the Celtics winning 95-90.

But the Boston and Brooklyn players and coaches didn’t seem to either notice the difference or seem overly concerned that the game was shorter and that there wasn’t as much time in this preseason game to get prepared for the regular season.

“You noticed it a little bit when subbing at the start of quarters, but I thought the flow with the one less timeout was actually a little bit better in the second and fourth,” said Celtics head coach Brad Stevens. “But I didn’t notice it other than that.”

Nets coach Lionel Hollins said that it made very little difference in the contest. “When you’re coaching I look up there and when we’re at the first timeout, that was kind of surprising,” he said. “That was the only time it seemed like it was quick.”

Celtics forward Jared Sullinger, who led all players with 21 points and 19 rebounds, looked at the scoreboard and five minutes were left in the first quarter. He then realized something was different.

“Normally I come out around the seven-minute mark,” Sullinger said, and then remembered that each quarter was 11 minutes. “Then I said, ‘oh that explains everything.’ It was kind of weird, four minutes less.”

Stevens said before the game that he was pretty sure how his substitution and timeout patterns would work, but wondered how player momentum and conditioning would be impacted.

“You noticed it when you checked in or came out and you looked up and see ‘oh man, I was in there for five minutes and there are only three minutes left’ and you realize it’s 11 minutes,” Celtics center Kelly Olynyk said. “So it’s just a little bit shorter.”

(MORE: Hubbard: 44 Minutes? What Would Wilt Say?)

Nets forward Mirza Teletovic said that the shorter game only mattered depending on how much people played. Having played in Europe and internationally, he said it felt like the pace was more like it is overseas, where there are four 10-minute quarters and fewer timeouts. “One minute here or there, I don’t know if it really makes that much of a difference,” he told SheridanHoops.

Andrei Kirilenko, who also played in Europe, agreed that a 48-minute game or a 40-minute game doesn’t make much of a difference at all.

“If it brings wins like it did tonight, we’re down for it,” said Celtics wing Evan Turner. “I thought it went pretty well. I think it’s something easy to get used to.”

So if the players and coaches didn’t seem bothered at all by the changes and the pace of the game is clearly quicker, perhaps it’s something that the NBA would consider continuing on an experimental basis in the D-League.

However, as Nets writer Tim Bontemps pointed out, fewer minutes per game may not sit well with the NBA Players Association, seeing that those extra minutes that would generally go to bench players, union employees, would be gone.

After what transpired Sunday, the league no longer has to be concerned about NBA players or coaches being impacted by a shorter game, and we could be seeing more of these games in the future.

Shlomo Sprung is a national columnist for SheridanHoops who loves advanced statistics and the way they explain what happens on the court. He is also the web editor of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. A 2011 graduate of Columbia University’s Journalism School, he has previously worked for the New York Knicks, The Sporting News, Business Insider and other publications. You should follow him on Twitter.