Photo by Rocky Widner/Getty Images(HOUSTON) — It was a record in futility on Wednesday night, but the Detroit Pistons managed to overcome Andre Drummond’s free throw ineptitude to defeat the Houston Rockets.
In the team’s 123-114 victory, Drummond missed an all-time record 23 free throws.
Drummond’s struggles from the charity stripe have been well documented, and have led teams to foul him intentionally — figuring that was a more effective means of stopping him from scoring than trying to defend him would be. Sent to the line 36 times on Wednesday, Drummond made only 13.
The previous record for free throw misses in a game was 22 — set by Wilt Chamberlain in 1967.
“It wasn’t a chess match,” Pistons coach Stan Van Gundy said afterwards, “it was just they wanted to foul and we let them foul.”
Rockets coach J.B. Bickerstaff admitted that his team’s strategy failed, saying simply “it didn’t work.”
“That’s the game the league wants, so that’s what fans get to watch,” Van Gundy added, expressing his disdain for the Hack-A-Shaq technique that was first popularized against Shaquille O’Neal, and later employed against Dwight Howard and others.
“I’m not going to miss them all,” Drummond said about his improved percentage in the fourth quarter, when he converted six of 12 free throws. “I’ve worked on it enough where I’m going to build a rhythm, and over time I ended up getting one.”
The Rockets had bench player K.J. McDaniels foul Drummond five consecutive times to start the second half — within nine seconds — to get the Pistons into the bonus, where they would shoot free throws after each foul. Drummond entered the game shooting 35.4 percent from the free throw lnie.
After 12 consecutive fouls, Drummond went to the bench. During that span, Drummond made just five of 16 free throws, allowing Houston to cut a nine-point deficit to just one.
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