OT - Pistons center Andre Drummond sets NBA record for free throw misses in a game with 23

Submitted by Dilla Dude on

Detroit center Andre Drummond was 13-of-36 from the free throw line in Tuesday's 123-114 win over the Houston Rockets. Drummond's 23 misses set a new NBA record for most misses in a game.

The Rockets opened the second half with K.J. McDaniels fouling him five times in the first nine seconds. Drummond shot 16 free throws in less than three minutes. At one point, the Rockets fouled Drummond 12 consecutive times.

Drummond set a career-high and franchise record 36 free throw attempts, and  was intentionally fouled 21 times. The previous record for most misses was 22, set by Wilt Chamberlain in 1967. Drummond was four attempts away from setting the NBA record for free throw attempts.

Drummond's free throw shooting woes are well-documented, so this dubious record isn't much of a surprise. But I can't remember a team using the 'Hack-a___'  rule this intensely since Shaq himself, and even then I don't think it was used this ridiculously. Thoughts?

Link - http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=espn:14615588&startTime=00:00


 

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Mr. Yost

January 21st, 2016 at 9:41 AM ^

You're right...but that's a bullshit argument for not being a winner.

Barkley, Ewing were winners and they never won a championship. Malone and Stockton. Elgin Baylor. There are countless great players, hall of famers, winners who never won a NBA championship.

If that's the definition of a winner, is someone a winner if they win one championship game...but are god awful the rest of their career?

It's a team sport, you have to take that into account - at least in my opinion you do.

But again, you're right and I agree that Harden isn't a winner and I also agree that he doesn't win a championship as the focal point of his team.

Joined: 07/25/2011

MGoPoints: -9898220

1201SouthMain

January 21st, 2016 at 1:56 PM ^

I'm old enough where I watched all three of those guys entire careers and I would put them right in with Harden.  Great players but not "winners".  Each of those guys were capable of putting up 40 but they didn't when it counted.  All 3 could disappear in a big game or not end up with the ball in their hands for the final shot.

I don't have any stats to back that up but again as an NBA fan that watched all three's entire careers, it doesn't surprise me that neither of those three won a championship.  And it didn't help them that they played in an era that had definite "winners" (Magic, Bird, MJ, Timmy, Zeke).  

You can be a HOF'er or even a Top 50 player but not be what I would call a "winner".  On the flip side you can be Robert Horry and be an average at best pro and win 7 titles.  That doesn't make Horry is a "winner".  It just means he played with some "winners". 

Joined: 11/25/2008

MGoPoints: 1250

definitelynotwiper

January 21st, 2016 at 1:23 PM ^

i know it has a little to do with how large his hands are (or at least that was Shaq's excuse, but at some point can't you...i dunno, just practice shooting them more? 

if he's that bad at shooting them by aiming to make a swish (for lack of a better way to describe it), maybe start putting more arc on them and aim for the middle of the square on the backboard? can't be much worse doing it like that...

Joined: 11/17/2013

MGoPoints: 322

BIGBLUEWORLD

January 21st, 2016 at 12:37 AM ^

If they would pay him more than that measely two and a half million dollars a year, maybe he'd feel more motivated to sink those free throws.

Joined: 07/14/2012

MGoPoints: 4239

AC1997

January 21st, 2016 at 6:26 AM ^

These guys are so afraid of looking stupid trying underhand but if they brought in the all time FT leader to teach them it would work. My thought is that you tell them to embrace it. Assuming it gets you up to 60%, you would be on all the highlight shows, everyone would talk about you, suddenly you're scoring 8-10 more points and are an MVP candidate. Your popularity goes up, your salary goes up.

Joined: 09/19/2008

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Stu Daco

January 21st, 2016 at 12:43 AM ^

NBA needs to take some action if this kind of thing continues.  Houston committed 41 fouls tonight.  That's an insult to the game.

Joined: 08/23/2015

MGoPoints: 8748

Mr. Yost

January 21st, 2016 at 10:52 AM ^

This is such a ridiculous statement people yell whenever someone wants the rule changed.

Intentionally fouling someone who doesn't have the ball or isn't in the play isn't "in the spirit of the game." It's bush league and awful for all parties involved.

"Make Your Free Throws" - I'm sorry, but every team sport has guys who are experts in certain areas and liabilities in others. 

The game is better with guys like Drummond, Ben Wallace, Shaq, Wilt, DeAndre Jordan...not worse. 

If the guy is on the floor on offense and he gets the ball in the post and you want to run over and hack the shit out of him to send him to the line. I have no issue with that. He's got the ball, he's a threat to score.

When it's 70 feet from the basket and you run up to him and rub his chest and put your right hand in the air like "yeah! that's me! that's my foul..." it's just silly. They're two totally different things.

I get that people should know how to make free throws...but don't have rules that punish people who can't. Just let them be a liability in the spirit of the game. If a QB can't throw well, he can still play QB. There are no rules that punish his poor arm...his legs or the offense are just going to have to make up for his deficiency. If you have a QB who's slow as shit, he can still play...he's got to figure out other way to be effective. But there are no rules in place that allow the defense to do something ridiculous to exploit the weakness.

Just play the damn game. It should be 1 shot and ball for doing that bullshit we're seeing these days.

Joined: 07/25/2011

MGoPoints: -9898220

Pepto Bismol

January 21st, 2016 at 2:49 PM ^

Stacking the box to force a pass by a QB that can't throw is the football equivalent of a basketball team sagging their defense into the paint to force a jumpshot by a guy that can't shoot. 

What NBA teams are doing is more like walking up and hugging a WR before the snap which causes the offense to forfeit the entire possession and now that WR has to attempt a 40 yard FG.

 

Yes, it's strategy, and I don't blame an NBA coach for using it until the league outlaws it. That doesn't mean it's not incredibly stupid.

 

Joined: 02/03/2015

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Braylon_Edward…

January 22nd, 2016 at 8:54 AM ^

The example holds true in that it forces a player into something they're not good at and in return you give yourself a better chance to win (or get back in the game, that's when most teams start hacking). I fully agree that it's annoying, but I don't think the fix is to change a rule that literally only affects a handful of guys in the league. Free throws are a skill. You can go from shooting 40% to 60% if you just work at.

Joined: 07/27/2014

MGoPoints: 2069

Dilla Dude

January 21st, 2016 at 12:49 AM ^

A few more interesting numbers from Tuesday's game: - Minus Drummond, the Pistons were 22-of-23 from the line. - After going 7-of-28 from the line thru the first 3 quarters, Drummond was 6-of-8 in the 4th.

Joined: 08/17/2010

MGoPoints: 871

ST3

January 21st, 2016 at 11:21 AM ^

by hacking Dwight and another Rocket who can't shoot FTs. It was a brutal game/series to watch. The average game was about 3+ hours long because of all the FT shooting. Eventually, guys get in foul trouble and you have to stop messing around and play basketball. I'm torn on the issue, because A) make your g-damn free throws, but B) don't make a mockery of the rules. If it is a foul 70 feet from the basket and it's just for the purpose of fouling the player (not a "basketball move") call it an unsportsmanlike conduct technical foul. The fouled team sends their best player to the line for 1 FT and they get the ball back. That would eliminate the problem.

Joined: 09/11/2010

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NittanyFan

January 21st, 2016 at 12:59 AM ^

at that point, Houston's coach almost owes it to KJ McDaniels to have him commit a 6th foul.  Let him set an NBA record.

Bubba Wells is currently the quickest NBA player to ever foul out of a game.  It took him 3 minutes.  McDaniels could have DESTROYED that record.

Joined: 12/04/2012

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1of12MattDamons

January 21st, 2016 at 1:04 AM ^

I can understand doing this towards the end of games if your team is losing, but it is kind of disgraceful and totally ruins a game, especially watching, to do this sort of thing.

Joined: 12/16/2013

MGoPoints: 21106

Yessir

January 21st, 2016 at 1:08 AM ^

All pro sports teams do most everything they can to win. 

 

Couple of examples... NFL does a 'hurry-up offense' so defenses can't sub players. That is within the rules.  Baseball shifts SS over to 2nd base.  I remember when this started people complained and now its the standard to use statitstics on hitters to adjust defenses.  So I don't see a major problem with exposing a weak point in someones game in the NBA. 

 

Joined: 12/22/2015

MGoPoints: 7270

APBlue

January 21st, 2016 at 7:22 AM ^

That's not a bad idea. Pro sports teams will do what they need to do to win, but they need paying customers to make money. Paying customers don't want to watch the flow of the game come to a screeching halt 20 times a game to see bad free throw shooters attempt free throws. It's bad for the game.

Joined: 01/07/2011

MGoPoints: 22020

Cali's Goin' Blue

January 21st, 2016 at 2:27 PM ^

Why does the NBA just not call it an intentional foul, which it obviously is? I thought you weren't allowed to intentionally foul until the last 2 minutes of each quarter. It seems like a very simple solution to an obvious problem. Obviously the players should be able to make their free throws, but its been proven that they just can't or won't.

Joined: 02/02/2015

MGoPoints: 1880

Two Hearted Ale

January 21st, 2016 at 8:38 AM ^

This needs to happen. Committing penalties, fouls in this case, shouldn't be a strategy but it's a key strategy in basketball for some reason. Every team that is behind fouls at the end of a game to get more possessions and "hack-a-****" is common now too. Allowing a team the option of taking the ball out of bounds on any foul would dramatically speed up what is supposed to be a free flowing game. Take timeouts away while the clock is running and we'd really have a nice game.

Joined: 06/10/2011

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MGoBender

January 21st, 2016 at 10:29 AM ^

Allowing a team the option of taking the ball out of bounds on any foul would dramatically speed up what is supposed to be a free flowing game.

Unintended consequence: Without the rewarding of FTs, teams that are down would put in scrubs with the sole initiative to "hack and foul your way to a steal." Most basketball games aren't overly extended due to the "foul to stop the clock" strategy. If you take away FTs, a team down 6-8 suddenly can take the last four minutes (not 1-2 minutes) and put guys out there they don't care about fouling out and play insanely physical defense until a ref swallows his whistle and they steal the ball. Maybe they get 4 fouls in 15 seconds before getting a steal, but all that's lost is the 15 seconds and you didn't even give the team a chance to score.

Joined: 03/26/2010

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