NBA to institute replay, rule changes

The NBA Board of Governors approved on Thursday five modifications to the instant replay rules currently in place and three changes on the court.

The alterations take effect starting with Friday’s preseason games.

Replay was expanded to include situations where officials are not sure a team had an improper number of players on the court during game action.

Current rules also were modified to allow instant replay review during the final two minutes of overtime rather than the entire overtime period. Replay will continue to be permissible during the final two minutes of the fourth quarter.

Replay now will be used when officials are not certain which team should get possession after the ball goes out of bounds. In the past, officials could only use replay to determine which player caused to ball to go out of bounds.

Another alteration is officials being able to use replay to determine when a foul call meets the criteria of a flagrant foul.

Referees also will have the use of replay to help them determine whether a foul that was called meets the criteria of a clear-path-to-the-basket foul. Additionally, officials will be able to go to replay to help them rule whether a player without the ball was fouled relative to the timing of a made shot.

As for the rule changes, the NBA approved an a non-unsportsmanlike technical and a loss of possession for teams with too many players on the court while the ball is in play. The team that didn’t commit the infraction would retain the option of accepting or nullifying what happened during the play.

In a change to substitutions, teams may now sub in players freely during timeouts. Old rules limited substitutions of certain players.

Also, the shot clock will no longer reset to five seconds after a held ball caused by the defense with fewer than five seconds remaining on the clock.