Celtics bested Nets in experimental game

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MANILA – The Boston Celtics won over the Brooklyn Nets 95-90 on Sunday during an experimental 44-minute preseason game.

Jaren Sullinger with 21 points and 19 rebounds brought his team closer to victory.

”I’m so used to seeing 12 (minutes) and I looked up and I saw 5-something on the clock. I’m like, man, normally I come out at the 7-minute mark,” Sullinger said.

”They said, ‘No, it’s an 11-minute (quarter).

‘ So that explains everything.”

Jeff Green chipped in 14 points for Boston (4-3), while Jarrett Jack and Jerome Jordan had 17 points each for the Nets (2-1).

The experimental 44-minute game was introduced as a way to compare and analyze the game compared with league-standard 48 minutes.

”You noticed it a little bit when you’re 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,” Celtics coach Brad Stevens said. ”I didn’t notice it other than that.”

The game on Sunday took 1 hour and 58 minutes compared with an average game that usually takes 2 hours and 15 minutes. Each quarter features 11 minutes, a-minute short of the usual 12.

Timeouts were also reduced from three to two during the second and fourth canto.

”I’m looking at the clock and it’s 7 or 6 (minutes remaining) on the clock and I have to get myself back because only 5 minutes have gone off if it says 6 on the clock,” Stevens said. ”That’s a little bit different, but I had it mapped out so I kind of knew what I was going to do.”
The Nets only made 5 out of 19 attempts from the floor during the third period.

”The third quarter seemed like we ran out of gas and the China trip really caught up with us,” coach Lionel Hollins said. ”The energy started dropping. We started taking bad shots and turning the ball over.”

For Brooklyn point guard Deron Williams, he really could not tell whether the shortened game had any effect.

”It’s really hard to tell a minute a quarter (and) 4 minutes a game. When you’re out there in real time, you’re not really thinking about it,” said Williams, who played just more than nine minutes in the second quarter and a little less than nine in the third.