Utah Jazz: The free throw streak that came at a cost

Regular trips to the foul line have hardly benefited the Utah Jazz of late.

On Thursday, the Utah Jazz Twitter account boasted that the squad owns the NBA’s longest active streak with 15 or more made free throws in 10 consecutive games. The tweet’s caption reads, “Numbers talk.”

Unfortunately for the Jazz (31-21), as several fans pointed out in response, those talking numbers include Utah’s 3-7 record across this span of games and slip to No. 4 in the Western Conference standings.

Putting two and two together, it seems frequent splashes from the charity stripe don’t necessarily translate to Jazz wins.

Plenty of free throws but fewer threes from the Utah Jazz

Perhaps the streak at the charity stripe reflects the Jazz’s slightly tweaked style of play while dealing with numerous missed games of late between notable 3-point snipers Donovan Mitchell, Jordan Clarkson, Mike Conley, and Joe Ingles.

Across the past 10 games, the squad has only twice finished with more than 40 attempts from downtown, dropping its season average to 40.1 (No. 2 in the league). Meanwhile, rather than launch threes at an NBA-leading rate, Utah has more often relied on gritty drives from the likes of Trent Forrest, a young backcourt fill-in who isn’t exactly known for potency from deep.

In turn, the team as a whole has frequently drawn fouls. Plus, it has been reliable at the foul line, hitting more than 70 percent of its attempts in all but one of the past 10 games.

Again, though, back-to-back wins have eluded the Jazz during this stretch.

Fortunately for the Jazz, they will welcome trigger-happy Donovan Mitchell back to the lineup on Friday night after his eight-game absence while trying to clear concussion protocols. Utah, hoping to build on its win over the Denver Nuggets from Wednesday night, hosts the Brooklyn Nets (29-22) at 7 p.m. MT.

Stay tuned to The J-Notes for more Utah Jazz news and views.