It’s only four minutes, but four minutes could’ve made the world of difference for a cramping LeBron James in the finals at San Antonio. The NBA will experiment with the change to see how it works out. This surely in no way benefits the league, of course, since it means less time for advertisers. The NBA doing something to benefit just the players seems a little strange, though.
The NBA will play a 44-min game between BKN and BOS on Oct. 19 to examine the flow of a shorter game as compared to the standard 48-min game
— Marc J. Spears (@SpearsNBAYahoo) October 14, 2014
Unfortunately, it comes with a price. The third timeout in the second and fourth quarters will be taken away. We will just have to wait and see how the players respond on Sunday.
Best part: Mandatory timeouts in the second and fourth quarter will be reduced from three to two. That third timeout is brutal.
— Chris Mannix (@ChrisMannixSI) October 14, 2014