Have you ever wondered which teams had the shortest and the longest games?
Well, you are in the right place ;-) Unless you are interested in playoffs data – then visit this post.
But let’s start with some curiosities…
The longest game of the season lasted 3 hours and 22 minutes:
Suns won against Grizzlies in double overtime on November 5 and
New Jersey Nets won against Raptors in triple overtime March 5.
The shortest game of the season lasted 1 hour and 53 minutes – Rockets destroyed Nets on March 29.
And now for something incredible: there were only 3 games over 200 minutes and 1 game which finished in less than 115 minutes and THREE OF THEM included New Jersey Nets! Amazing coincidence…
Average length of game was 138,1 minutes [down from 139,16 minutes in 2009-10!].
OK, now let’s focus on the main point of this post: length of games in the last regular season…
| Team | Avg Minutes | Gms more than 3 hours |
Gms less than 2 hours |
| Los Angeles Clippers | 144,65 | 2 | 0 |
| Oklahoma City Thunder | 143,13 | 1 | 0 |
| Miami Heat | 142,84 | 0 | 0 |
| Orlando Magic | 142,01 | 0 | 0 |
| Boston Celtics | 141,84 | 0 | 0 |
| Chicago Bulls | 140,66 | 1 | 0 |
| Phoenix Suns | 140,61 | 3 | 1 |
| New York Knicks | 140,10 | 0 | 1 |
| New Jersey Nets | 139,42 | 2 | 1 |
| Memphis Grizzlies | 139,36 | 1 | 0 |
| Sacramento Kings | 139,27 | 0 | 0 |
| Portland Trail Blazers | 138,74 | 0 | 1 |
| Denver Nuggets | 138,57 | 0 | 1 |
| Los Angeles Lakers | 138,27 | 1 | 1 |
| Washington Wizards | 138,22 | 1 | 1 |
| Minnesota Timberwolves | 137,64 | 0 | 0 |
| Golden State Warriors | 137,30 | 0 | 0 |
| Detroit Pistons | 137,20 | 0 | 1 |
| Utah Jazz | 137,13 | 1 | 0 |
| Toronto Raptors | 137,04 | 1 | 0 |
| Indiana Pacers | 136,29 | 0 | 0 |
| Dallas Mavericks | 136,26 | 0 | 0 |
| New Orleans Hornets | 136,02 | 0 | 0 |
| Philadelphia 76ers | 135,65 | 0 | 4 |
| San Antonio Spurs | 135,16 | 0 | 1 |
| Charlotte Bobcats | 134,50 | 0 | 1 |
| Houston Rockets | 134,48 | 0 | 4 |
| Cleveland Cavaliers | 133,89 | 0 | 1 |
| Milwaukee Bucks | 133,77 | 0 | 2 |
| Atlanta Hawks | 133,11 | 0 | 3 |
Congratulations for Los Angeles Clippers! Yes, they were the best at something! ;-)
And I’m surprised that Hawks and Bucks were so quick… because Cavs were simply blew out too often.
Weak Side Awareness 
Greyberger
May 30, 2011 at 08:36
I’d be interested in seeing these numbers again, adjusted for overtime periods – basically see how many real minutes per game minute for each team.
wiLQ
May 30, 2011 at 12:12
“I’d be interested in seeing these numbers again, adjusted for overtime periods”
I also would be interested ;-) but…
a) how would you adjust it? I’m pretty sure not every overtime lasted the same time,
b) do you know where is the list of overtime games?
Or I have to count them myself? Hey, that could be an idea for a post ;-)
c) Overtimes do increase the time of games…
Matt
June 1, 2011 at 22:43
You’d adjust for the same reason you adjust player stats to per minute or per possession. It puts every team on equal ground. Then, the data would show how long each teams’ games took relative to “game minutes.”
Either way, interesting post.
wiLQ
June 1, 2011 at 23:40
Wait a second, I understand idea and I agree that adjustment should be done…
but how could I do that without any information about length of overtimes?
wiLQ
June 4, 2011 at 00:56
I created a spin-off ;-)
Thanks for the inspiration!
Adrien Peltzer
October 25, 2017 at 17:48
Where do you get this info? Is it available on nba.com? I haven’t looked around much but was just wondering
Adrien Peltzer
October 25, 2017 at 17:49
nevermind I see you say you got it from ESPN thanks