How Long Does a Professional Basketball Game Last?

One NBA game lasts for 2 1/4 to 2 1/2 hours. The duration of the game itself is 48 hours plus 15-minute halftime. However, the actual time taken spent by the spectators to watch a single game is between 137 minutes to 160 minutes, depending upon the stoppages taken for other reasons. This time may vary for NBA finals as the event run for a total of three hours and may take longer to finish.

If a tie is called, the game is played discretely until the winner is found. The game is played for another 5 minutes, and whichever team can score the goal is declared the winner.

The clock will not run if any of the following things happen:

•Ball gets out of the pitch

•When there are free throws

•During time outs

•When a foul is called

As soon as the ball is inbound and the player touches it, the clock starts running.

Timeouts have various rules, and it all depends upon the league you are playing in. Mentioned below are the timeouts in different games:

1. NBA- Each time has 6 full timeouts for the duration of 20 seconds for every half. In NBA, only the player can call for the timeout.

2. High School- High school games have 5 timeouts in total. Two timeouts consist of 30 seconds, whereas three timeouts are of 60 seconds.

3. NCAA College- Timeouts duration may immensely vary depending upon whether the match is aired on TV or not. The match will also include media timeouts if it has to be aired on TV. So, a team gets a single 1-minute timeout and four 30 seconds timeout if it is a TV game. However, players get two 30 seconds timeouts and four 75 seconds timeout if it is a non TV game.

National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is the body of college basketball. The college basketball games go for 40 minutes. Moreover, NCAA games include 2 half times instead of 4 quarters in the typical basketball games. The first half lasts for 20 minutes and the second half lasts for 15 minutes. A college game aired on TV takes circa 2 hours 10 minutes in total, including all media timeouts, stoppages, fouls, and breathers.

Basketball is one of the most popular sports that is played in every high school. The game lasts for 32 minutes; however, if we talk about the actual total time, including breathers, clock stoppages, and fouls, it takes up to one a half-hour to finish. (See How many games are there in the NBA regular season?)