Jeff Zillgitt

USA TODAY Sports

The Brooklyn Nets and Boston Celtics will play a 44-minute game — four minutes shorter than a regulation NBA game — Sunday at the Barclays Center.

Playing four 11-minute quarters is a one-time preseason experiment and only exploratory. However, at the recent NBA coaches' meeting in Chicago, the length of games was a topic, and it was suggested the NBA take a look at shortening games.

"We have looked at everything that we do and are taking a fresh look at all the different things we do," NBA president of basketball operations Rod Thorn said. "One of the things that keeps coming up is our schedule and the length of our games. … Our coaches talked about it, and a lot of them seemed to be in favor of at least taking a look at it. We talked with our competition committee, and they were in favor of taking a look at it."

The NBA will look how a 44-minute game impacts length of the game, player-substitution patterns and flow of the game to determine if there's a better experience.

"Let's get some empirical evidence regarding this and take a fresh look at it," Thorn said.

One game is a small sample size, and it's possible the NBA experiments with 44-minute games next preseason and in the D-League, which is often used a testing ground for ideas.

The Nets and Celtics volunteered to participate in the 44-minute game experiment, which will include a different mandatory timeout schedule.

Each quarter will have two mandatory timeouts at the first dead ball under 6:59 and the first dead ball under 2:59, and the game will have two fewer mandatory timeouts than a normal game. In a 48-minute game, there are three mandatory timeouts in the second and fourth quarters, and the first mandatory timeout comes at the first dead ball under 5:59.

The league will pay close attention to the length of that game. The total time of an average NBA game is about two hours, 15 minutes.

Also, if the NBA played 44-minute games for an 82-game season, it would eliminate about seven games worth of a minutes from a regular season. However, that doesn't mean a coach would play certain players fewer minutes.

For example, LeBron James still might play 38 minutes per game. But maybe he plays less, which would take some wear and tear off of players not only during a single season but the length of a career.

"The reality is that we don't know," Thorn said. "But the probability is that they're going to play a little bit less."

Whether the NBA seriously looks at 44-minute game for permanent use, it strengthens the notion that NBA Commissioner Adam Silver is open to ideas that challenge the status quo.