Celtics become first team in NBA history with zero free throw attempts in a game

BOSTON -- The Boston Celtics have been setting a lot of NBA records this season with their explosive offense. But on Tuesday night, the Celtics made some NBA history for something their offense didn't do.

Despite Jayson Tatum (37 minutes) and Jaylen Brown (36 minutes) logging some serious playing time against the Bucks in Milwaukee, no member of the Celtics found their way to the charity stripe throughout the 104-91 loss. The Celtics are now the first team in NBA history to go an entire game without attempting a single free throw.

It was a pretty easy night for the officiating crew of Marc Davis, Bent Taylor, and Danielle Scott, who called just 12 fouls for the game: eight on Boston and four on Milwaukee. Only Giannis Antetokounmpo made it to the line late in the first quarter, making one of his two freebies on the night.

But that was it for the charity stripe on Tuesday night, and those two free throws between the two teams also set a new NBA record. The previous record for fewest combined free throw attempts was 11, which was set in a Magic-Pacers game on Nov. 10, 2019. The Hawks and the Grizzlies held the previous single-team record, with both attempting just one free throw in a game.

Usually, you could pencil Antetokounmpo in for a dozen or more trips to the line against Boston. But the Bucks star left late in the third quarter with a calf injury.

With everything already locked up for Boston this late in the regular season, the Celtics didn't really give their maximum effort on Tuesday. They ran an extremely vanilla offense with 52 of the team's 93 shots coming from downtown. Tatum took five shots from under the basket while Brown took nine, but neither got to the line.

"Another day in the NBA," Tatum said of the team's unique record. "Maybe just gearing up for the playoffs? They let a lot of things go. I guess [the officials] are just getting us ready for playoff basketball."

At least the ugly night for the Celtics was over pretty quickly. Without any of that down time at the charity stripe, Tuesday night's game clocked in under two hours at 1:57.