NBA Votes to Reduce Number of Timeouts, Implements Pace-of-Play Changes

ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski reported Wednesday that the NBA Board of Governors voted to reduce the maximum number of timeouts per game from 18 to 14. 

Wojnarowski added each team will be permitted two timeouts in the final three minutes of the game rather than three.

Todd Dybas of the Washington Times confirmed the new rules and tweeted a rundown of all changes meant to speed up the pace of play:

The changes focus primarily on allowing fewer timeouts as well as shortening the length of timeouts.

Notably, the under-nine-minute television timeouts have been eliminated from the second and fourth quarters, while every team timeout will now be 75 seconds. Previously, teams had both "full" 90-second timeouts and "20-second timeouts" which were actually 60 seconds.

Pace of play has been a hot-button issue in Major League Baseball recently, but speeding up the game consistently has proved difficult since it's an untimed sport.

The new NBA rules represent a concerted effort to allow fewer stoppages over the course of a game, which should create a better flow.