Trailblazers 6 on 5

Remembering when the Trailblazers brought an extra player to the court to give them the edge

Transcript

00:00Can you go six on five in an NBA game if no one notices?

00:03You be the ref.

00:05On December 30th, 2008, the Boston Celtics were taking on the Portland Trail Blazers.

00:09After calling a timeout with just 10 seconds left in the half,

00:12Nate McMillan and the Blazers set up one last play to cut their six-point deficit before halftime.

00:16On the court, the Blazers had Jared Bayless inbounding to Steve Blake,

00:19Lamarcus Eldridge, Rudy Fernandez, Greg Oden, and Travis Atwal.

00:23And for those keeping track at home, yes, that is six players.

00:27The refs don't notice, and Steve Blake takes the ball inbounds

00:29and unsurprisingly finds a wide-open Greg Oden under the hoop.

00:32Oden then passes it to Outlaw, who's cutting underneath for the slam, cutting the lead to four.

00:37However, once the play is over, the refs, with some assistance from Kevin Garnett,

00:41realize that the Blazers had too many men on the court and assess them a technical foul on the play.

00:46But should the Trail Blazers be allowed to keep the points that they scored?

00:50What do you think?

00:51Well, according to the rules from that time,

00:53because the violation was caught by the refs after the Trail Blazers scored,

00:57Portland was allowed to keep the two points.

01:00However, that offseason, the NBA closed that loophole in the rules that allowed this,

01:05with the rules now being that if a team has too many men on the court,

01:08the opposing team has the option to nullify the previous play,

01:11in addition to the technical foul.

01:13But the Trail Blazers got away with it this time,

01:15and those two points played a pivotal role towards the end of the game,

01:18as the Trail Blazers won a close one over Boston, 91-86.