End of an NBA game: dullest 2 minutes in sports – Chicago Tribune

It has been said the most exciting two minutes in sports is the Kentucky Derby.

That is open to discussion.

But there is no debate over the dullest two minutes in sports.

It is the end of an NBA playoff game.

(College basketball can be just as bad, but that season has ended for now, so we’ll leave that discussion for another time.)

I’m not a millennial with an attention span measured in milliseconds that are shared among Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, SnapChat, Vine, Spotify, texting.

Truth be told, I’m old enough to be a grandparent of millennials, and I still can’t endure how long it takes for the NBA to slog through what should be the climactic moments of a game at the high point of the season.

They seem to last 100 years.

Especially in comparison to the end of NHL games.

Here are a few examples:

• Yes, games three and four of the Bulls-Cavaliers series each had a thrilling final two seconds. But it took a mind-numbing 14 minutes, 59 seconds of real time from the two-minute mark until the Cavs’ LeBron James launched his buzzer-beating winner in Game 4 and 10:44 of real time from the two-minute mark until the Bulls’ Derrick Rose did the same in Game 3. Game 5, effectively decided with 20 seconds of game time left, slogged through the final two minutes in 13:27 of real time.

• In real time, the final two minutes of the first three games in the Hawks-Wild NHL playoff series lasted 4:06, 2:58 and 4:20.

• The final two minutes of the Capitals 1-0 victory over the Rangers in Game 3 of their playoff series took a relatively slow 5:01 because there were three face-offs (two after icing) and one timeout..That stretch of Game 4, a 2-1 Caps triumph, was a snappier 4:21.The decisive game six of the Lighting-Canadiens series, in which Tampa Bay’s victory (4-1) was no longer in doubt at the end, needed just 3:05 of real time for the final two minutes of clock time.

Over the last four seasons, according to numbers compiled by Michael Beuoy, creator of the sports analytics website “Inpredictable,” the average length of the final two minutes in NBA playoff games was 9.3 minutes of real time, with the last minute taking 6.3.

I could find no available comparable stats for the same years in the NHL — probably because neither the NHL nor the burgeoning pack of sports data analysts have no need to collect information on a non-issue in the sport.

Yet there is no question NHL games end with relative alacrity — and therefore are much more compelling if the score is close than the attenuated conclusions in the NBA.

Basketball also seems worse because it has commercials during some of the stoppages in the final two minutes. The NHL has none, and the viewer stays in the rink during stoppages for faceoffs or timeouts.

Why did Game 4 of the Bulls-Cavs series drag so badly?

In the last two minutes, there were four fouls and six timeouts — two “regular” timeouts, allegedly 100 seconds each, three of the laughable 20-second timeouts and one officials’ timeout for a review. The broadcaster can fill any and all those stoppages with ads.

NBA rules allow each team up to three timeouts in the final two minutes, one regular and two 20s. The NHL allows each team one 30-second timeout per game, and it can be used at any point after a stoppage of play.

The final two minutes of an NHL game often include edge-of-your-seat moments created by one team pulling the goalie for an extra attacker.

The final two minutes of an NBA game usually include get-out-of-your-seat-and-go-to-the-bathroom moments created by another timeout or foul.

And there can be virtually unlimited strategic fouls in basketball, each one pulling the game to a halt.

The NBA’s 20-second timeouts are false advertising. In 2008, blogger Steve Conry expressed his agitation over 20-second timeouts in a Celtics-Bulls playoff game that he clocked at 90 and 91 seconds of real time.

“There are multiple perspectives on this,” Northwestern communications professor Irv Rein said.

“Some members of the audience are dedicated to watching the game in a straight line, and they tend to be older and more avid fans. The younger and the more casual fans are likely not to be as dialed in, and they are blogging, tweeting and watching other shows during breaks. The game is almost like a smorgasbord instead of one meal for them.”

I called on a couple of former colleagues who now run college sports journalism studies, Vicki Michaelis at the Grady School of Journalism of the University of Georgia and Kelly Whiteside at Montclair State (N.J.) University, to seek help in getting some perspective from their millennial students, a generation Rein says “sees things as highlights, not in a continuous way.”

“I understand (the NBA’s) business is in those commercial breaks, and it takes time to sell things,” said Tunmise Odufuye, 22, a senior at Montclair State. “As a fan, I’m most certainly not pleased with it. The amount of time it takes is ridiculous.

“They have to realize we are on our phones and laptops too, not just watching the TV. If you want to keep us engaged as fans, you have to go much quicker.”

Jordan James, 21, a Georgia senior, has a slightly different view.

“The amount of TV timeouts and stoppages, whether for reviews or called timeouts, is annoying but I have become used to it,” James said in an email. “I usually tweet during games so it doesn’t bother me as much because it keeps the game going for me even if there is a stoppage. I get the effect of being in a sports bar even if I’m in my room watching the game alone, which makes the pace slightly easier to endure.”

Little did I know that the NBA seems to have stumbled accidentally onto a two-minute drill that fits the habits of some millennials.

The drill it suggests to me is spending a millennium in the dentist’s chair.

phersh@tribpub.com

Twitter @olyphil

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