Dirk Nowitzki clutch free throw shooting

[dude1394]

Hat-tip on this from ep over at http://p073.ezboard.com/Dirk-Nowitzk...ID=29124.topic

Dirk Nowitzki clutch free throw shooting since November 2003 82games.com featured some clutch free throw stats, but only through april 5th 06, so I browsed through the remaining games of the 05-06 season, the 2006 playoffs and the 2006-07 season.

the definition they used: Clutch Free Throw = under two minutes left in the game, neither team is ahead by more than three points. (That strict definition does exclude a lot of other made fts but also the missed one with the Mavs leading the Suns 109-103, however.)

data sample:
2003-04 regular season + playoffs
2004-05 regular season + playoffs
2005-06 regular season + playoffs
2006-07 regular season

clutch ft percentage: 88-101 (.871)


splits

2006 playoffs

game 3 vs SA 4-4 (giving the mavs a 1 pt lead, stackhouse was 0-2 afterwards)
game 4 vs SA 2-2 (forcing overtime)
game 7 vs SA 1-1 (forcing overtime)
game 3 vs MIA 1-2 (&%$§)

= 8-9 (.889)


2006-07 regular season

11/24/06 vs SA 2-2
12/28/06 vs PHX 2-2
01/09/07 vs UTA 2-2
01/12/07 vs IND 3-4
01/27/07 vs SAC 2-2
01/31/07 vs MEM 3-3
02/03/07 vs MIN 2-2
03/03/07 vs ORL 2-2
03/14/07 vs PHX 1-2
03/16/07 vs BOS 2-2
03/18/07 vs DET 1-2

= 22-25 (.880)

So he misses one here and there but he doesn't shoot significantly worse when the game is on the line.