An NBA quarter is 12 minutes long. An NBA game consists of four such quarters, totaling 48 minutes of playing time

. The clock counts down during each quarter, and the actual duration of a quarter in real time is longer due to stoppages such as fouls, timeouts, and reviews. Typically, an NBA game lasts about 2 to 2.5 hours in real time because of these interruptions and the 15-minute halftime break between the second and third quarters