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SALT LAKE CITY - The Jazz made 10 more field goals and shot 59 percent from the field, but a deficiency in free throws kept their 113-105 victory over the Cavaliers to single-digits.
There were two problems with the free throws in the Jazz's win. The first was the Jazz shooting 69 percent from the line (20-29) and the other was the Cavs taking 14 more shots from the free-throw line (31-43).
"It's just the way it was called," said Utah Jazz head coach Tyrone Corbin. "They were aggressive out there going to the basket."
The Jazz's record shows the importance of the charity stripe - they are 5-0 when they take more free throws than the opponent and just 1-3 when they lose the battle.
Two players that have been contributing at the free throw line with limited minutes are Josh Howard and Alec Burks. Howard led the team with five makes in six trips to the line and leads the team in attempts and makes this season, shooting 90 percent from the line.
"That's the only thing I've been able to always do is get to the line," Howard said. "Get guys out of position and not settling for the jump shot. I can knock it down, but I would rather get to the line and get two easy."
Burks didn't have any trips to the line in the win, but has averaged a free throw every six minutes, which is behind only Howard on the Jazz.
"I feel like everybody's being aggressive," Burks said. "That's what I'm doing. That's how I play the game I get to the free-throw line."
The other side of the problem is keeping the opponents off the line. Burks said that the answer to that problem was, "stop being overaggressive."
Corbin looked at the problem a little differently and focused at what the Jazz can improve with their defense.
"We got to do a better job of not giving straight-line drives to the basket," Corbin said.
Derrick Favors and Paul Millsap fouled out of the game to help give the Cavaliers some of those trips to the line. Favors came up with a simple solution to the problem, "stop fouling."
The charity stripe hasn't hurt the Jazz in any close games yet, but as @diggitbrother tweeted, "Leaving the door open. #freethrows #cleatuta."
Eventually the Jazz will have to make their free throws to shut the door or, according to @CodyRoseborough, "If the Jazz want to be able to beat good teams, they will HAVE to start making their free throws. #CLEatUTA"
