Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately 24 cm in diameter) through the defender's hoop (a basket 46 cm in diameter mounted 3.048 meters high to a backboard at each end of the court) while preventing the opposing team from shooting through their own hoop. A field goal is worth two points, unless made from behind the three-point line, when it is worth three. After a foul, timed play stops and the player fouled or designated to shoot a technical foul is given one or more one-point free throws. The team with the most points at the end of the game wins, but if regulation play expires with the score tied, an additional period of play (overtime) is mandated.
The introductory paragraph uses material from the Wikipedia article "Basketball" as of 2 Dec 2018, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.
