Kayte’s Blog: The Psychology Of Free Throws
December 11, 2009 by Kayte Christensen
If you look at the Kings free throw percentage after 21 games, it’s really not too bad. Seventy-two percent (72.3) isn’t fantastic, but it’s by no means bad. However, if you took out the handful of games where the team shot poorly from the line, its average would be extremely respectable.
The one thing that really stands out in the Kings last four losses to Phoenix, Miami, New Orleans and San Antonio is the team’s 60 percent (57-95) shooting from the line. In the four wins prior to those games, the Kings shot 75.2 percent from the line.
It’s not rocket science, really. Making free throws wins games. In the New Orleans game on December 8th, the Kings lost by two and shot 9-of-19 from the line. Their first game against New Orleans on October 30th, the team lost by five and shot 13-of-20 at the stripe. You’re probably saying, “If they’d just hit a few more free throws, they’d have a few more wins.” Maybe you’re right, but I don’t believe in looking back at a game and saying, “If I had just made that one lay-up” or “If I’d knocked down that free throw,” etc., because in reality, if a free throw was made or a lay-up scored, it may very well have changed how the game played out down the stretch and not affected the outcome.
I’m not interested in the shoulda, coulda, wouldas. I’m interested in what it is that makes a player like Omri Casspi shoot 52.7 percent from the field (including threes, which he’s not shy to attempt) and then shoot 48 percent from the free-throw line. He can shoot the ball very well, so why is he struggling at the line, especially when he can go to the line and knock down 50 straight in practice?
It made me think back to when I was playing. I was by no means a great free throw shooter, if you looked up my career stats. Many things factored into that. My first two seasons my coaches worked with me to try and change my shooting form, which is difficult to do in-season. Like Omri, I was probably an 80 percent practice free throw shooter and a mid-60 percent free throw shooter in games. I did everything right. When I practiced, I made sure it was as game realistic as possible. I’d run a line drill before stepping up to shoot 10. I’d never shoot multiple shots in a row. I’d take two free throws and rotate because anyone who has ever stepped up to the line and just shot, you know if you start off making them, after several, you can practically hit them with a hand tied behind your back and blindfolded… So the question remains, why don’t practice free throw percentages translate into games?
Pressure!
Players respond to pressure differently. The Kobe Bryant’s of the world thrive on it, while others buckle from it. I’ve always believed free throws were a mental thing. Focus. Confidence.
That’s why they are the hardest shot on the floor for some people. Omri started off the season struggling from the line, and now his confidence is off. His focus has heightened to the point where he is too focused, so even when he steps up to the line in the first quarter, it feels like it’s a game-deciding free throw.
Have you ever stressed yourself out? Or given yourself a migraine? Omri has a free throw migraine right now. But it’s not just Omri anymore. It seems like the whole team is too focused at the free-throw line. Despite their recent free throw percentage, the season’s average shows the Kings have the ability to be better at the stripe.
I have no doubt this team will turn it around and show improvement at the line, especially with Kevin Martin returning in the near future.
For the time being, though, Kings fans need to get behind the team and try to understand the psychology of it for a moment, and maybe pay a little mind to the saying “nothing in life is ever really free!”
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