What is an official timeout in an NBA game?

An official timeout is when neither coach requests a timeout during the game (a single quarter), but there are usually fewer timeouts in the first two quarters of the game. The referee will then request an official time-out for the purpose of releasing information (match previews, official events) and advertising. The official timeout does not count towards the time-out of both teams.

A short pause is a 20-second pause, which in some places is described as a TV commercial pause. Each team has a short timeout in each of the two halves, which means that the short timeout in the first half will be void if it is not called to the second half; Extra time is used as an extension of the second half, so a short timeout in the second half can also be used in extra time.

Regular timeouts, also called long timeouts, but there are also two types of time: 100 seconds and 60 seconds. Each team has six regular timeouts in 48 minutes of regular time, and usually four of them are 100-second timeouts that are required for one to four quarters each.

In addition to these four mandatory timeouts, the other two regular timeouts are 60 seconds and are usually reserved for the last two minutes of the fourth quarter. (The break between the first and second sessions, the third and fourth sessions is 130 seconds).

There is also a 100-second timeout in the second and fourth quarters, which does not take up any team's timeout, so it is called an official timeout. So there will be a maximum of 18 timeouts for both teams in 48 minutes of a game: two official timeouts, 12 regular timeouts, and four short timeouts.

Each team has three 60-second regular timeouts per overtime, and regular timeouts that have not been used up within 48 minutes are void until overtime.

Each team can only call a maximum of three regular timeouts in the fourth quarter. Each team can only call two timeouts in the last two minutes of the fourth quarter and the last two minutes of each overtime (not including short timeouts), so by the end of the game we see that the maximum number of timeouts available to the team is 2 long and 1 short.

Regular timeouts can be substituted at will, and there is only one substitution place for a short timeout, and if the team called the short timeout changes one person, the other team can also change one person; However, a short timeout in the last two minutes of the game allowed for unlimited substitutions.

In a game, there must be two 100-second timeouts in the first and third quarters (one for the home team and one for the away team), and if no team calls a timeout from the start to 5:59, the scorekeeper must call a timeout on the next dead ball and count it to the home team's head; Similarly, from the first timeout to 2 minutes and 59 seconds, if no team calls a timeout, the scorekeeper must call a timeout on the next dead ball, and count it to the team that did not call a timeout before;

In the second and fourth quarters, there must be three 100-second timeouts each (one official, one home team, one away team), compared with the first and third quarters, there is an additional 8 minutes and 59 seconds of time, that is: 8 minutes 59 seconds, 5 minutes 59 seconds, 2 minutes 59 seconds These time periods must each have a regular timeout, and the order of timeouts is: official, home, and away.

That is, if no team called a timeout before 8 minutes and 59 seconds, then there will be an official timeout; If a team called a timeout before 8:59 and no team called a timeout at 5:59, it was an official timeout, and it wasn't until 2:59 that it was counted as a team that didn't call a timeout before.