2014 Las Vegas Summer League: Game Rules, Format and Tie-Break Criteria

Related Links: Participants announced for Samsung NBA Summer League

Game Rules

All-non tournament games played during the NBA Summer League will be played under the following rules:

- Four (4) ten minute (:10) quarters

- Eight minute (:08) halftime

- Ten minute (:10) warm up period prior to the start of each game

- Two minute (:02) minute overtime period

- Each team is allowed one (1) 60-second timeout

- Penalty begins on the 2nd team foul

- The second overtime period (or any overtime period thereafter) is sudden death (first team to score a point wins)

- Teams are in the penalty on the 10th team foul or 2nd team foul in the last two (2) minutes

- Players foul out with their 10th personal foul

- Each team will receive two (2) full timeouts (60 seconds) per half

- Mandatory timeouts (60 seconds) will be taken at the first stoppage of play after 5:59 and 2:59 of each quarter

- A 60-second timeout taken by a team will negate the next mandatory timeout due in that quarter

- Timeouts do not carry over

All other NBA rules apply.

Tournament games played during the NBA Summer League will be played under the same playing rules as the non-tournament games except:

- Players foul out with their 6th personal foul during the tournament

- All overtime periods are two minutes (:02)

Summer League Format and Tournament

Format Summary

- 24 participating teams

- Each team will play a minimum of 5 games in the NBA Summer League

- There will be a total of 67 games

- Each team will play three games (July 11-15) in the preliminary round and will be seeded 1-24 for a single elimination tournament (July 16-17, July 19-21) on the basis of the results of the preliminary round

- Seeding for the tournament will be determined by record with ties being broken using the tie-break criteria described below

- Teams seeded 9-24 will be play in the first round of the tournament and teams seeded 1-8 will receive a first round bye

- The tournament will consist of five single elimination rounds to determine the NBA Summer League Champion

Tie-Break Criteria

1. Two Teams Tied. In the case of a tie in preliminary round records involving only two teams, the following criteria will be utilized in the following order:

- Head-to-head matchup: team that won the game between the two teams in the preliminary round, if applicable, receives the higher seed

- Quarter system points*: team with the higher quarter point total receives the higher seed

- Point differential: the team with the better net result of total points scored less total points allowed against all opponents receives the higher seed

- Random drawing: higher seed shall be determined by a "coin-flip"

2. More Than Two Teams Tied. In the case of a tie in preliminary round records involving more than two teams, the following criteria will be utilized in the following order:

- Quarter system points*: team with the higher quarter point total receives the higher seed

- Point differential: the team with the better net result of total points scored less total points allowed against all opponents receives the higher seed

- Random drawing: higher seed shall be determined by a "coin-flip"

Application of tie-break criteria

(a) Each of the tied teams has a different quarter point total or point differential under the applicable tie-break criterion (a "complete" breaking of the tie). In this circumstance, the team with the highest quarter point total or best point differential under the criterion will be awarded the best playoff position, the team with the next-highest quarter point total or next-best point differential will be awarded the next-best playoff position, and so on, and no further application of the tie-break criteria will be required.

-- OR --

(b) One or more (but not all) of the tied teams has a different quarter point total or point differential under the applicable tie-break criterion (a "partial" breaking of the tie). In this circumstance: (x) any team(s) that performed better under the applicable criterion than any other team(s) will be awarded a higher playoff position than such other team(s); and (y) teams that had equivalent performance under the applicable criterion will remain tied, and such remaining tie(s) will be broken by applying the quarter point total criteria and then, point differential, if necessary.

Quarter point system

- In each game:

> 1 point is awarded to the team that scores more points than its opponent in a given quarter

> ½ a point is awarded to both teams in the circumstance when the teams score the same number of points in a quarter

> 0 points are awarded to a team that scores fewer points than its opponent in a given quarter

> A total of 4 points are awarded for a given game

>> No additional quarter points are awarded for winning the game

>> No additional quarter points are awarded in the case of an overtime period (i.e., 4 quarter points are the maximum that a team can earn in a game).

- At the conclusion of the preliminary round (3 games), a team can accrue between 0-12 quarter points