February 06, 2014

Sacre Bleu! Los Angeles Lakers Run Out of Players: In last night's game against the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Los Angeles Lakers ran out of players. Robert Sacre fouled out with 3:31 left in the game, leaving only four players on the team capable of taking the floor -- they had fielded eight, two were injured and another fouled out). Shahan Ahmed of the Los Angeles Times explains what happened next: "Under rules seemingly no one had heard before, the Lakers were allowed to keep Sacre in the game after the Cavs shot a technical free throw. From that point forward, any foul Sacre committed would count as a personal foul and a technical foul. Luckily, that never happened." ProBasketballTalk has more on the excellent weirdness.

posted by rcade to basketball at 02:57 PM - 8 comments

I love it when crazy, edge-case rules get invoked.

Things like this, when a hockey puck splits in two, a baseball gets lodged in the umpire's equipment, drop-kicking a football, standing inside the net to avoid an offside in soccer...

posted by grum@work at 04:02 PM on February 06, 2014

What happens when a puck splits in two?

posted by rumple at 07:20 PM on February 06, 2014

The rule is that the entire puck has to cross the goal line, so if only half the puck crosses (say, on a slapshot that hits the post and splits the puck), then the whistle blows the play dead and no-goal is declared.

posted by grum@work at 07:59 PM on February 06, 2014

If both pieces of the puck stay on the ice, can you try to collect them and shoot them both into the net separately?

posted by bender at 08:34 PM on February 06, 2014

Sadly, no. The ref is supposed to immediately blow the whistle if he spots the puck has split in twain and both parts aren't in the net when it happens.

posted by grum@work at 10:58 PM on February 06, 2014

Has a puck ever split in two? I guess it must have but ......

posted by rumple at 09:49 PM on February 08, 2014

Here's one.

posted by BoKnows at 09:55 PM on February 08, 2014

If my puck was in twain, the last thing it would do is split.

posted by beaverboard at 10:10 PM on February 08, 2014

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