Take a look at the above scoreboard from a recent Golden State Warriors vs. New Orleans Hornets basketball game. Can you tell what all those numbers mean? Any guesses? Let me break it down:
The Warriors scored 126 points and the Hornets scored 92. Warriors win!!!
The 4 in between the two scores means it is the fourth quarter of the game. Basketball has four quarters in each game.
The Warriors as a team has 5 fouls on the Hornets. The Hornets only committed 4 on the Warriors.
Now take a look at the word Bonus in red on the Hornets side of the scoreboard. If you were watching this game, you might hear someone say "the Hornets are in the bonus." Once the team is in the bonus, they get to shoot free throws for every foul committed the players. It takes five fouls per half for a team to get into the bonus. So, the Warriors committed five fouls combined in the third and fourth quarters, the Hornets get into the bonus, and get to shoot free throws from then on when fouled. Basketball scoreboards seem complex. But its kind of like a guy trying to understand women's clothing or shoe sizes.
Next lets talk about time outs. The yellow 2 on the Warriors side means they have two 30 second time outs left. The Hornets have one. The white 1 next to the Time Outs means Warriors and Hornets both have one longer 60 second time outs.
I hope this helps! Next time you're watching, keep an eye on the number of fouls. You want the team you're rooting for to get into the bonus so they can shoot more free throws and score more points. When the opposing team has 4 fouls, you can say "the Warriors are almost in the bonus!"
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