When the Boston Celtics and Houston Rockets faced off on Saturday night, it was a close game that came all the way down to the final minute.
In the final minute, Kyrie Irving had the same task twice, trying to intentionally miss a free throw and hope his team could get the offensive rebound.
With the first attempt, he ended up rolling it home and on the second attempt, he didn't even hit the rim — so it was a violation and the ball went back to the Rockets.
That last violation ended up doing the Celtics in and they lost 123-120. After the game, Kyrie Irving and Brad Stevens were asked about his trouble missing free throws, and he gave an interesting response to Adam Himmelsbach of the Boston Globe.
Article Continues BelowKyrie on failing to intentionally miss FTs: “I suck at them. I’ve been probably up there 4 times, and I’ve failed every single time at trying to miss on purpose. I don’t know. Don’t ask me. I keep telling my teammates, ‘I’m not good at missing.’ I’m not. I’m serious.”
It is true, Kyrie Irving is such a good free throw shooter. He is shooting 88.8 percent from the free throw line this year, which is a little up from his career percentage of 87.5 percent.
Brad Stevens echoed the same thoughts after a disappointing loss.
After a tough loss, Brad Stevens with a moment of levity when asked if Kyrie Irving was supposed to intentionally miss late free throw. “It’s really hard for Kyrie to miss … which is why he’s so special.”
— Chris Forsberg (@ChrisForsberg_) March 4, 2018
As good of a free throw shooter as Irving is, this opportunity is going to come again where he is going to need to miss a free throw on purpose. Maybe the Celtics need to spend a little extra time after practice on becoming worse free throw shooters when it matters most.