Wolves unsure about NBA shortening games

Brooklyn and Boston on Sunday will play a shortened 44-minute preseason game, an NBA experiment intended to help determine if current games are growing too long.

It's an idea NBA head coaches discussed at their annual September meeting and which the league's Competition Committee then approved a trial run.

Wolves president of basketball operations and coach Flip Saunders said Tuesday a 44-minute game is worth considering to see if it'll keep players healthier over an 82-game season and limit games that have grown in length because of instant-replay stoppages to a more reasonable two hours and 15 minutes playing time.

Sunday's game will be played with four 11-minute quarters instead of the standard 12-minute quarters. There will be one fewer mandatory timeout in the second and fourth quarters, too.

Saunders said he doesn't think those four fewer minutes and two fewer timeouts will impact the game's integrity, but acknowledges that basketball "true bloods" might object to some of the implications.

"Is it going to mess up your statistics?" he asked. "Guys don't play 48 minutes anyway, but it does hurt lower-end guys who probably won't get the minutes. The main guys still probably will play their 32, 34 minutes. I don't think it will have an effect on the people who win games."

Wolves veteran point guard Mo Williams played plenty with Portland last season when the game was on the line, including the clinching, buzzer-beating victory in a first-round playoff series over Houston.

"I come off the bench, man," he said. "They need to put 50 minutes on that so my minutes would be up. I need more minutes, not less."

Lakers superstar Kobe Bryant told L.A. reporters he's an old-school traditionalist but admitted his aging body wouldn't mind a shortened game.

Wolves veteran Corey Brewer understands the concept but isn't a proponent of change for change's sake.

"I like the 48 minutes," he said. "I guess there are a lot of miles on guys' legs and games are taking too long, they say. But I don't know. It's been like this for a long time. I feel like they shouldn't change it.

There's going to be injuries if you play 44 minutes or you play 30 minutes. It's basketball, things happen."

Saunders also is a minority team owner. He was asked if teams will charge about 10 percent less for tickets if the game's playing time is trimmed by four minutes a night.

"I don't think they'll do that because we don't charge an extra 10 percent when there's an overtime game," Saunders said.

Forward Shabazz Muhammad wore a protective boot at Tuesday's practice on medical staff's suggestion to calm tendinitis around his Achilles' heel.

He likely won't do anything at practice until Thursday at the earliest and is not expected to play Friday when the Wolves face Milwaukee in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Saunders said Muhammad felt ready to practice Tuesday but he was placed in the boot as a precaution with the season opener still two weeks away.

Saunders said Martin likely will play this weekend, which means Sunday's game against Oklahoma City in Tulsa, Okla., at the latest.

• Brewer has started beside rookie Andrew Wiggins on the wing with Martin missing the first two preseason games.

"I like playing with him, I think we can play together but let's be honest," Brewer said. "When K-Mart comes back, I'll come off the bench. So Chase [Budinger] and I will play together and him and K-Mart will play together."

• Newly acquired Wiggins and Anthony Bennett both celebrated Thanksgiving Day on Monday — they're both Canadian and the Canadian holiday is in October — although Bennett said he didn't partake of the traditional turkey feast to help preserve his new boyish figure.

"Nah," he said. "I'm eating light."