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December 30, 2011
The Morning After: Free throw misses prove costly

Chuck Hayes said the big things - like making shots - aren't the Kings' biggest problem.

It's the little things, the details that will cost the Kings games.

And one of those minor details has been especially bad at home.

In two home games, the Kings have attempted 69 free throws. Their opponents, the more heralded Los Angeles Lakers and Chicago Bulls, have attempted 40.

The Kings, however, are struggling on free throws that's a reason why the lost to the Bulls, 108-98, Thursday night.

The Kings were able to put five fouls on Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah, but that didn't mean much with the Kings clanking free throws.

The Kings were aggressive, but they let the Bulls off easy by missing free throws.

The Kings were 20-of-34 against the Bulls and are just 55-of-91 from the foul line this season (60.4 percent).

The Kings got away with poor foul shooting against the Lakers by making 9-of-18 three pointers.

The Kings were actually good from three-point range against the Bulls (8-of-17) but could not overcome blowing so many opportunities at the foul line to go along with bad transition defense.

Tyreke Evans was 5-of-12 from the line and blamed the loss on himself, saying he is too good of a player to miss so many free throws.

Kings coach Paul Westphal is concerned about the free throws:

"We'll keep practicing. Players can improve their free throw percentage. Some guys can have a tough time. They hover their career with high 60s, low 70s, we have a few of those players. We have many players that shoot in the high 70s, low to mid 80s, we need to get those guys to the line. It does go in cycles sometimes with free throws and right now it's hurting us. We're not going to take somebody who has been a 60 percent free throw shooter their whole career and all of the sudden have them shoot 90 percent, but they're going to work on it and get it up to 70 percent, at least."

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