Name: How Warriors’ Steph Curry became the best free-throw shooter in NBA history
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How Warriors’ Steph Curry became the best free-throw shooter in NBA history

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This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigateAs he acclimates to an overhauled supporting cast, Warriors guard Stephen Curry is coming to view the free-throw line as a sort of refuge.Fifteen feet from the basket, as he clenches his mouthpiece, taps his right toe just behind the nail at the exact center of the line, positions his right foot a couple of inches in front of his left, takes a deep breath, dribbles the ball once and shoots it, Curry forgets all the pressures of being the face of the franchise. In those several seconds, he lets his mind clear as he awaits the swish of the net.“The game has changed for him because of all the different pieces,” Warriors assistant coach Bruce Fraser said of Curry, who had only through the season’s first four games — center Kevon Looney — with whom he has played significant minutes. “The one thing that doesn’t change is the free-throw line.”What also doesn’t change is Curry’s proficiency there. with a free-throw percentage of 90.6, he has made a franchise-record 72 foul shots in a row, a streak that dates back 21 months. No one has had a string of converted free-throw tries that long since Dallas’ Dirk Nowitzki hit 74 straight in March 2011.With with a torn right Achilles tendon, the Warriors are more reliant than ever on Curry’s free-throw shooting. This is a team that owned the NBA’s fifth-worst offensive rating through Tuesday. Even Curry, the greatest shooter in league history, is struggling to find open looks as he tries to settle into a flow alongside his new running mates.He enters Friday night’s matchup against Portland at Chase Center — the first of a seven-game homestand — shooting 41.3% from the field (31.8% from 3-point range). Whenever the Warriors’ shots aren’t falling, Curry makes a concerted effort to get to the foul line. His 6.5 free-throw attempts per game would be a career high.“Being able to get easy points from the free-throw line is important when we’re not getting good shots,” said Curry, who broke Rick Barry’s franchise record of 60 consecutive made free-throw attempts (1976) with his sixth foul shot in Sunday’s win over Chicago. “We’re going to keep trying to do it.”Curry grew up studying the free-throw habits of one of the NBA’s best shooters: his father, Dell, who shot 84.3% from the foul line over his 16-year career. By the time Curry enrolled at Davidson, he had identified a routine that made him comfortable. Everything from the positioning of the mouthguard (it has to stick vertically out of the left side of his mouth) to the location of his stance (the line’s nail must be right between his feet) was carefully crafted.Perhaps no part is more vital than the deep breath he takes before he bounces the ball low once with his right hand. In that moment, he blocks out whatever foul just occurred and allows muscle memory to take over.On the rare occasions Curry misses, he thinks — if only for a fraction of a second. His standing as the most accurate free-throw shooter in NBA history is a testament to his ability to compartmentalize. In addition to having textbook form and superb hand-eye coordination, Curry is better at making his mind go blank than almost anyone.This is someone who’s so focused that he gets frustrated when the ball grazes the rim on free-throw attempts. When physically and mentally fatigued at the end of each practice or workout, he must hit 10 foul shots — at least five of which have to be swishes — before he can leave the floor. Fraser has noticed that, when Curry has swished only two of his seven consecutive makes, he tends to swish the final three tries.The scary part for the rest of the league is that his mental fortitude has only strengthened as his career progressed. As the Warriors slogged through a nine-month offseason because of the coronavirus pandemic, Curry set personal records in a number of shooting drills. On Saturday, , easily breaking his previous record of 77 in a row.Once Curry made roughly 30 consecutive 3-pointers, Fraser started to get nervous. The only way Curry would miss, Fraser figured, was if one of his passes was off target.Stephen Curry has not only led a Warriors resurgence since entering the league, he has changed the game with his long-distance shooting.“There’s something special about his mental ability that I can’t put my finger on,” said Fraser, who’s in his seventh season as Curry’s shooting coach. “I’ve never seen anyone like him.”Curry last missed a foul shot in a regular-season game in a win over Memphis on March 29, 2019, when the first of two attempts with 34 seconds left in the first quarter clanged off the back of the rim. After making his next seven free-throw tries in that game, he hit his final 13 attempts of the 2018-19 season before draining all 26 of his attempts in 2019-20 and all 26 of his attempts this season.In recent days, as he tried to build on his franchise-record streak, Curry became a bit irked with questions from reporters about his success on free throws. Even the slightest thought at the foul line could prompt him to miss and end his run.Warriors CoverageThat would be a major disappointment — not just because the Warriors could use each of his made free throws, but because Curry is 26 makes shy of passing Minnesota’s Micheal Williams (1993-94) for the NBA record.“I try not to think about the streak,” said Curry, whose previous record for consecutive made free-throw tries was 54 (April 12 to Oct. 29, 2017). “But now I’m getting reminded about it after every game, so it’s kind of hard.”Connor Letourneau covers the Warriors for The San Francisco Chronicle. Email: Twitter:Stephen Curry has not only led a Warriors resurgence since entering the league, he has changed the game with his long-distance shooting.

This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigateAs he acclimates to an overhauled supporting cast, Warriors guard Stephen Curry is coming to view the free-throw line as a sort of refuge.Fifteen feet from the basket, as he clenches his mouthpiece, taps his right toe just behind the nail at the exact center of the line, positions his right foot a couple of inches in front of his left, takes a deep breath, dribbles the ball once and shoots it, Curry forgets all the pressures of being the face of the franchise. In those several seconds, he lets his mind clear as he awaits the swish...

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Senior NBA and sports enterprise writer for the San Francisco Chronicle. Portland, Ore., native. @thedbk alum. cletourneau@sfchronicle.com

Connor Letourneau

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How Warriors’ Steph Curry became the best free-throw shooter in NBA history

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