No team may have less than five players. If a player in the game obtains his sixth personal foul and all replacements have already been disqualified, the player will be penalized with a personal and team foul. According to NCAA and FIBA rules, the squad must continue to play with four players. However, since 1985, when the NBA instituted its "smaller court" design, this has never occurred.
In addition, if a player on an opposing team is deemed unfit to play by the team's coach, he can request a replacement from the league office. The only other option is if one of his teammates is able to cover for him by playing defense. If a replacement does not arrive within 15 seconds, the player left off the bench is allowed to re-enter the game.
There have been several instances where this problem arose during a game. In some cases, the remaining players were able to overcome the deficit and win; others resulted in a loss for their team.
Overall, it is difficult for an NBA team to run out of players because of how quickly they can be replaced. If this situation did arise, another player would have to come off the bench to fill the gap until more could be found or a replacement could be sent out from the locker room as a medical emergency.
To begin a game, a team must have five players. If all but four players foul out, you can then play with four, three, two, or one. On the court, you must have four players. The sole exception is when a player gets injured or fouls out. At that point, you can use three players without having to replace them.
An NBA team consists of nine players on the court at any given time. A player can be in jail sentence, hospitalized, or otherwise unable to play and the team can continue to compete.
A team's ability to play with less than its normal roster size is called "playing small". These smaller teams are usually more competitive because they have more opportunities to win or lose games. Playing small is useful for many reasons: it gives your other players opportunities to prove themselves; it gives you extra depth; and finally, it reduces the risk of injury. The downside is that these smaller teams tend to be harder to defend since there are only so many positions on the court where you can put people who aren't playing basketball.
Almost every NBA team can play with less than its normal roster size during a regular season game.
What if an entire basketball team fouled out of a game? If every player on a team fouled out of a game in high school or college basketball, the team was obliged to forfeit and lose the game. In the NBA, there must always be five players on the floor at all times. So if all players for a team were to be ejected from a game, either by suspension or disqualification, then another five players would have to be found in order for them to still be able to play.
In fact, this has happened several times in NBA history. Here are the facts:
The first time this happened was in 1951 when the Rochester Royals played the Chicago Stags. During that year's NBA playoffs, the Stags were awarded a free throw after each of their opponents' shots were blocked. The Stags made all their free throws and won the series 3-0.
Two years later, in 1953, the Minneapolis Lakers played the New York Knicks in the first round of the NBA Playoffs. With less than 10 seconds left in the game, neither team could score so Larry Foust, who had been kicked out of the game for arguing a call, was given the ball back to coach John Kundla. They needed a miracle shot at that moment, but Foust missed the bighorn shot at the buzzer, giving the Lakers a 1-1 tie breaker. They went on to win the series 2-1.
A team with more than five players on the court at the same time receives a technical foul for having too many people on the court. The National Basketball Association's regulations were altered in March 2009 to allow for the nullification of goals scored with too many players on the court. Previously, such shots would be counted as three-pointers.
In addition, teams are awarded one free throw for each minute they have more players on the court than their opponents. If the number is even, the team with more players awards both free throws. If not, they get one free throw and their opponent gets two.
There have been cases where a game has ended with neither team being able to score because they both had too many players on the court. These games usually end in a tie. A perfect example was the 2004 Eastern Conference Finals between the Miami Heat and the Detroit Pistons. In that series, each team had eight players on the court for more than 20 minutes at times. They played until there were only four seconds left on the clock without anyone able to score. At this point, the rules say that you get two free throws, which was done in that series. However, since no team was able to score during those last four seconds, the game went into overtime. From there, it was determined that the Heat won the game 100-98.
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