How many quarters are in a NBA game?

In baseball, you have innings. In football, you have quarters. In hockey, you have periods. In golf, you have holes. And in soccer (aka futbol), you have halves.

In basketball, or at least at the NBA level, you have quarters (and halves). In the NBA, you have four quarters. Each quarter is exactly twelve minutes long. The first two quarters are considered the first half. And the last two quarters, and everything that comes after them (more on this in a bit), is considered part of the second half.

This is different than the men’s college format, where, just like in soccer, you have two halves and no quarters. However, unlike soccer, in college, the halves are 20 minutes each (instead of 45…