Ask any science teacher: the longest measurable unit of time is no longer the baseball season -- it's the final two minutes of a close basketball game.

Want proof? Look no further than Game Four of the 2008 NBA Finals. If Laker fans thought Thursday's come-from-behind loss was painful, the rest of the nation probably thought it was painfully slow.

This year's series is dominating TV ratings and has been wildly dramatic, but the finishes are more like The Neverending Story. The final 2 minutes and 10 seconds of Thursday's game lasted 15:35 on the tube. In other words, one minute of playing time averaged 7:11 of your time.

Ever wonder where those 15+ minutes of your life went?

• 6:50 - 44% - Team/Official/TV Timeouts (filled by commentary)
• 5:57 - 38% - Play (including free throws and inbounding the ball)
• 2:48 - 18% - Team/Official/TV Timeouts (filled by commercials)

This is in no way a criticism of basketball, but a curiosity. The biggest surprise might be that so little time was spent on commercials during a stretch when so much of the nation was glued to the tube. The only annoying part about the commercials was that they were in one long stretch, and were run instead of 7 seconds of actual play.

If you want to check the math yourself, this second video picks up right where the top one ends (Red Lasso only allows a clip to last 10 minutes).