The Los Angeles Lakers literally ran out of players in their game against the Cleveland Cavaliers on Wednesday, yet they still won 119-108.
As mentioned in our post about Chris Kaman taking a nap on the bench, the Lakers started off the game with just eight players because of injuries and/or rest days. Nick Young got hurt in the second quarter, Jordan Farmar got hurt in the fourth quarter, and Chris Kaman fouled out. That left the Lakers with just five players.
Things got really interesting for Robert Sacre, who was playing with five fouls. And wouldn’t you know? He picked up his sixth foul with under four minutes left in the game. That resulted in an extremely confusing situation because they Lakers didn’t have any healthy players who could replace him.
The referees went to the rule book for Rule 3 section 1 b which explains what happens in this exact situation:
a. Each team shall consist of five players. No team may be reduced to less than five players. If a player in the game receives his sixth personal foul and all substitutes have already been disqualified, said player shall remain in the game and shall be charged with a personal and team foul. A technical foul also shall be assessed against his team. All subsequent personal fouls, including offensive fouls, shall be treated similarly. All players who have six or more personal fouls and remain in the game shall be treated similarly.
The Lakers were charged with a personal and team foul and were assessed a technical foul. Things were so bad that Steve Nash, who is returning from his back injury and had the night off, got into uniform and joined the bench with a minute left just in case. Luckily the team didn’t need him, but it just shows how crazy things got at the end.
