NBA: Its ok to have 6 players on the court

[BA93]

Last night, the Blazers had 6 players on the court when inbounding the ball from the sidelines. They score before the officials realize the mistake. The Blazers are issued a technical foul, but the basket counts.

The refs need to use common sense when making a decision. Maybe an NBA rule doesn't specifically address this situation but the basket can't be left on the scoreboard.

 

[triplehorn]

If there is no provision for it to be a video reviewable call (like who really touched the ball last before it went out of bounds), the current way of handling it makes sense, i.e. if the sixth man isn't recognized by the refs until some point after the basket, technically speaking, they can't say if he came onto the court before or after the basket was scored, so it stands. That's my existential take, at least.

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[Steven1809]

We would first need to find a NBA ref with common sense.

 

[BA93]

triplehorn - That makes sense but effectively, Portland cheated the Celtics for 2 points in a game that ended with Portland winning by 5.

And from what I understand the refs were being told by the Celtics that there were 6 men on the court but they didn't count until after the play.

There is also that pesky thing called sportsmanship. I wonder if Portland could (at the time) ask for 2 points to be taken off the scoreboard.

 

[triplehorn]

In reply to:

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[BA93]

Your examples are judgment calls. 6 men standing around the free throw line is completely different. but I won't argue with you since you're cool with the call.

 

[triplehorn]

A player knows he stepped out of bounds under the hoop, pivots and lays it in for two. The ref missed the call even though the opposing bench was calling it out loudly. Video replay seen by all is definitive. Poor sportsmanship by the player by not appealing to have his bucket erased to make up for the referees failure ?

Again, whether the call is black and white or a judgment, when the failure is on the part of the refs, I don't fault the sportsmanship of the player for not somehow correcting the refs error.

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