The NBA is not known for giving away opportunities.

Yet that's what the Kings did Tuesday to help the Boston Celtics to a 95-92 victory.

The victory didn't come without a fight, and the 14,439 fans felt the pain at Arco Arena.

There have been games this season in which the Kings have missed free throws and sabotaged their efforts.

However, never have they done so as blatantly as they did Tuesday night. Sacramento missed eight of 10 free throws during the fourth quarter. Six of those misses came during the final 1:32. 

Kings coach Paul Westphal openly admitted his team lost the game by shooting so poorly at the free-throw line.

"I don't know how to measure frustration," Westphal said after his team's record fell to 18-35. "It's obvious that we lost the game at the free-throw line. That's the big difference. We missed nine free-throws in the second half, just about all of them in the fourth quarter, it seemed like."

The worst came with 4.2 seconds remaining. Boston (33-18) led 93-91 after Omri Casspi made the first of two free-throw attempts. Casspi tried to miss the second shot legally, which meant the ball had to touch the rim. Once the ball hit the rim, it could be rebounded, potentially by one of Casspi's teammates which could give them the opportunity to tie the game.

Casspi's shot hit the backboard hard, but then hit the front of the rim and fell through the net.

On the other side, Boston made each of its seven free-throw attempts during the fourth quarter.

"We missed free throws and they made theirs," Casspi said. "The one I tried to miss (Tuesday night), I made it."

Casspi scored a team-high 19 points and shot more accurately from three-point range (3 of 5) than from the free-throw line (2 of 6).

Jason Thompson came off the bench to have an otherwise solid game with 17 points, and a game-high tying 11 rebounds, but missed two free-throws with 16.5 seconds remaining and the Celtics leading 89-87.

Thompson made his only previous pair of free-throws.

"I didn't feel any nerves or anything," he said. "The first one was long, so I adjusted on the second one and it was short. The experience will help, but this hurt."

No matter the victor, the losing team would have felt like they were handing them the win on a silver platter. Both teams played solid defense, but both also missed numerous point-blank shots at the basket.

Boston coach Doc Rivers lamented his own team's mishaps. "We counted about 12 lay-ups we had at the basket that we didn't convert."

Yes, but his team didn't miss eight of 10 free-throw attempts in the fourth quarter.