Rockets Vocab Word of the Day: "5th Quarter"

Today's word is "5th Quarter."

Intentional fouls like these fuel all the 5th Quarter action

Definition: A period of time near the end of a game when a team starts to foul on purpose even while they cannot possibly win.

As in "Why would the Knicks be fouling down 10 with a minute left? Time to go - looks like the 5th Quarter has begun."

There is nothing more annoying than the 5th quarter in any form of basketball. It's completely unnecessary, and yet players, for some wild reason, think that fouling will somehow improve their chances of winning the game.

Bar none, the worst 5th Quarter games were during the San Antonio/Phoenix playoff series last season and the whole "Hack-A-Shaq" fiasco. It started in the first half, thus becoming the longest 5th Quarter in NBA history. Only the Spurs...

After some searching, the only logical reason I could find for starting or extending the 5th Quarter is the video below. For those that don't know, Ricky Davis was one rebound shy of a triple-double in a game that Cleveland had all sealed up, 120-96. But then he does this and gets rightfully hacked:


That's your only excuse, players. Nothing else goes. Stop fouling and let me go home.