How Long Is an NBL Game? Quarters, Breaks, Overtime and Real Time

An NBL game is 40 minutes of playing time, split into four 10-minute quarters. Because the clock stops so often, a game usually takes around two hours from the opening tip to the final siren, and a close finish or overtime can push it past that.

The game, quarter by quarter

The NBL plays under FIBA rules, which set the length of every part of the game:

That is 40 minutes of basketball and 19 minutes of scheduled breaks. Everything else comes from the clock stopping.

Why 40 minutes takes two hours

• The clock stops on every whistle: fouls, violations, the ball going out of bounds and free throws.
• Timeouts. Each team gets two timeouts in the first half and three in the second, plus one in each overtime, and each lasts a minute.
• Made baskets late in the game. In the last two minutes of the fourth quarter and in overtime, the clock stops after a made field goal.
• Video reviews. Officials can check close calls on replay, and coaches can challenge certain decisions.
• Fouling to stop the clock. In a close game the trailing team fouls on purpose, so the last few minutes can take a long time.

Overtime

There are no draws in the NBL. If the scores are level after 40 minutes, the teams play a five-minute overtime period, and keep playing extra periods until someone wins.

Across the 17 seasons of 40-minute games on file (2009–10 to 2025–26), 127 of 2300 games (5.5%) went to overtime: roughly one game in 18. Of those, 20 needed at least two overtimes, and the longest, when Melbourne United beat the Illawarra Hawks 123–122 in October 2018, needed four.

NBL games used to be 48 minutes

Until 2008–09 the NBL played four 12-minute quarters, like the NBA. From 2009–10 it moved to FIBA's 40-minute game, and scores dropped straight away. The table shows every season on file, with points per team per game and how often games went to overtime:

Overtimes are worked out from the minutes in each box score, so games whose box score is missing or doesn't add up are left out of that column.

NBL vs NBA game length

Eight fewer minutes is the main reason NBL scores are lower than NBA scores. The other rule differences are in NBL vs NBA: every key difference.

Going to a game?

Most NBL games tip off in the evening, with some weekend afternoon games. Allow about two hours for the game itself, and a little more for a close one. The schedule shows every tip-off in your own time zone, and if you can't get there, each game has a live game centre with the score, box score and play-by-play.