Kyle Kuzma Lakers
Kyle Kuzma #0 of the Los Angeles Lakers in action against the Brooklyn Nets at Barclays Center on January 23, 2020 in New York City. Mike Stobe/Getty Images)

KEY POINTS

  • Kyle Kuzma hilariously missed a technical foul shot during the Lakers vs. Warriors game
  • The Warriors bench poked fun at Kuzma for his shooting blunder
  • The Lakers went on to beat the Warriors, 128-97

The free throw is essentially one of the easiest baskets to make in basketball.

A player is given an open shot 15 feet away from the basket, with no defense whatsoever, coining the term “free throw.”

Still, even the best players in the world come up short on the free throw line every once in a while. After all, when you’re on that line, all alone, the pressure can get to you.

That’s likely what happened to Los Angeles Lakers forward Kyle Kuzma, who came up way short on the free throw line during their game against the Golden State Warriors on Monday.

Kyle Kuzma
In this picture, Kyle Kuzma #0, and LeBron James #23 of the Los Angeles Lakers react during a timeout in the fourth quarter of the game against the Los Angeles Lakers at Barclays Center on December 18, 2018 in New York City. Sarah Stier/Getty Images

Tasked to shoot a free throw following a technical foul, Kuzma got up to the line and then missed the shot badly.

As expected, the Warriors’ bench had themselves a pretty good laugh at Kuzma’s expense.

Even Kuzma couldn’t help but laugh at his little blunder.

At the end of the day, it was Kuzma and the Lakers who had the last laugh as they ended up blowing out the Warriors, 128-97.

Kuzma finished with 17 points--which could have easily been 18--five rebounds, and four assists.

As it turns out, this could likely be the very first time that a player ended up airballing a technical foul shot.

The closest instance of a bricked technical foul free throw was back on January 29, 2014, in a game between the Chicago Bulls and the San Antonio Spurs, according to the research of NBA Twitter personality Rob Perez.

In the third quarter of that contest, Tony Parker went to the line to shoot a technical foul shot, and the ball ended up slipping out his hands as he took the shot.

According to Perez, Parker’s error wasn’t counted as a shot and he got a do-over. The Bulls ended up winning that game, 96-88.