Foul shots

In basketball, free throws or foul shots are unopposed attempts to score points from a restricted area on the court (the free throw line; informally known as the foul line or the charity stripe), and are generally awarded after a foul on the shooter by the opposing team. Each successful free throw is worth one point.

Free throws can normally be shot at a high percentage by good players. In the NBA, most players make 70–80% of their attempts. The league's best shooters (such as Steve Nash, Rick Barry, Ray Allen, José Calderón, Stephen Curry, Reggie Miller, Kevin Durant, and Dirk Nowitzki) can make roughly 90% of their attempts over a season, while notoriously poor shooters (e.g. Dwight Howard, DeAndre Jordan, Wilt Chamberlain, Andre Drummond, Andris Biedrins, Chris Dudley, Ben Wallace, Shaquille O'Neal, and Dennis Rodman) may struggle to make 50% of them. During a foul shot, a player's foot must be completely behind the foul line. If a player lines up with part of his or her foot on the line, a violation is called and the shot doesn't count. Foul shots are worth one point.

There are many situations when free throws can be awarded.

The first and most common is when a player is fouled while in the act of shooting. If the player misses the shot during the foul, the player receives either two or three free throws depending on whether the shot was taken in front of or behind the three-point line. If, despite the foul, the player still makes the attempted shot, the number of free throws is reduced to one, and the basket counts. This is known as a three-point or four-point play, depending on the value of the made basket.

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