NBA makes Play-In permanent, approves heightened penalty for transition take foul / News - Basketnews.com

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The NBA Board of Governors approved a change to the playing rules that will impose a heightened penalty when a defensive player commits a "transition take foul", which is an intentional foul committed by a defender to deprive the offensive team of a fast-break opportunity.

Beginning with the 2022-23 NBA season, the penalty for committing a take foul (a foul in which the defender does not make a play on the ball) to stop a transition scoring opportunity will be as follows:

The offensive team will be awarded one free throw, which may be attempted by any player on the offensive team in the game at the time that the foul is committed. The offensive team will retain possession of the ball. The defensive player who commits the take foul will be assessed a common personal foul.

Previously, the penalty for a take foul was a common personal foul on the offending player and (assuming the foul did not trigger or exceed the free throw "bonus" in a quarter) a side out for the offensive team.

Under the new rule, teams may commit a take foul during the last two minutes of the fourth quarter and the last two minutes of any overtime period (regardless of whether the foul occurs during a fast-break play) without triggering the heightened penalty.

This exception will allow the defensive team to use the longstanding tactic of taking a foul to stop the clock during an attempted comeback or prevent the opposing team from potentially tying the game with a three-pointer.

NBA also approved the adoption of the Play-In Tournament on a full-time basis using the same format that was in place for the 2020-21 and 2021-22 seasons.

Under this format, the teams that finish the regular season with the seventh-highest through the 10th-highest winning percentages in each conference will compete to fill the seventh and eighth playoff seeds in each conference.

For the 2022-23 NBA campaign, the Play-In Tournament will take place April 11-14, 2023, between the last day of the regular season on April 9 and the start of the playoffs on April 15.

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