The G League has long served as the NBA’s de facto laboratory, the perfect space to test professional basketball’s wackiest ideologies and even changes to the game’s rules.

Coach’s challenges were first experimented within the G League, then Summer League, before the NBA incorporated the tactic into its regular-season gameplay for the 2020-21 season. Resetting the shot clock to 14 seconds following a foul or offensive rebound was also examined in the G League before reaching the NBA level, too. This year, the annual G League Showcase in Las Vegas from Dec. 19-22 staged the NBA’s greatest pilot program yet — which the league is dubbing a "target score."

In 31 games of the Showcase, which gathers each G League club for a midseason competition in front of NBA team personnel, all contests had no timed fourth quarters. Instead, the final frame was played until one team reached the target score of 25 points added to the leading team’s total after three quarters. That means every game — no matter the score differential — ended on a game-winning basket.