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NBA
What Is a Triple-Double? Double-Doubles, Quadruples and Records
A triple-double means 10 or more in three of points, rebounds, assists, steals and blocks. How each stat is counted, worked examples, quadruple-doubles and the key records.
NBA Rules and Stats Explained
Quarters, clocks, overtime and the stat lines fans talk about, explained with real examples.
NBA
How Long Is an NBA Game? Quarters, Overtime and Real Time
An NBA game has four 12-minute quarters and 5-minute overtimes, yet takes over two hours. Here is how the clock works and how college, WNBA and FIBA games compare.
Basketball is the easiest of the four big US leagues to follow from the first minute, but the clock and the box score still raise questions. This section answers them with the NBA rulebook in hand, and compares the NBA with college, WNBA and international games where the rules differ.
The clock
An NBA game is four 12-minute quarters, with 5-minute overtime periods until someone wins, yet it takes more than two hours to play. How long is an NBA game explains timeouts, reviews and the end-of-game fouling that stretch the last minutes, and how college, WNBA and FIBA games compare.
The stat lines fans talk about
A triple-double means reaching 10 or more in three of five categories: points, rebounds, assists, steals and blocks. What is a triple-double shows how each stat is counted, works through real-looking box scores, and explains the double-double, the rare quadruple-double and the records behind them.
How to use these guides
Each guide gives the short answer first, then the detail. Rules are checked against the current NBA rulebook, and anything that changes from season to season is dated. If you are coming to basketball from another sport, the game-length guide is the best place to start, because it explains the clock that shapes everything else.