Deron Williams on playing in 44-minute game: 'You really can't tell'

The NBA's initial experimentation with 11-minute quarters and a 44-minute game led to a contest being played in less than two hours, but the players and coaches involved barely noticed the difference.

"I looked up there and we were already to the first timeout. That was kind of surprising. That was the only time it seemed like it was quicker, but other than that, I didn't really notice," Brooklyn Nets coach Lionel Hollins said, according to ESPN New York.

Hollins' Nets fell to the Boston Celtics 95-90, in a game that took one hour and 58 minutes to play.

"It's really hard to tell a minute a quarter, four minutes total a game when you're on there in real time and you're not really thinking about it," Deron Williams said. "So you really can't tell anything."

No player logged 30 minutes in the preseason contest. Celtics big man Jared Sullinger stole the show with 21 points and 19 rebounds in 29 minutes.

With the 44-minute experiment a major talking point around the NBA right now, players like LeBron James and Dirk Nowitzki have spoken up about shortening the 82-game regular season rather than shortening the games themselves.

Just this weekend Carmelo Anthony and Tony Parker added their takes, with Anthony saying he wants to see less back-to-backs and Parker suggesting the league should cut the preseason in half rather than cut the number of minutes in a game.