(Associated Press)

(Associated Press)

At his locker, answering questions about his career-best performance, Jrue Holiday was clutching a DVD of footage from Sunday's win over Phoenix.

It happens all the time, that Holiday will watch game tape right after the game has concluded. And from this one, Sixers coach Doug Collins wanted him to see one particular play.

Collins said Holiday's penchant for shooting leaners, preferring to jump sideways instead of up and down (pictured here) prevents Holiday from drawing fouls and getting to the free throw line.

“One of the things I’m going to show Jrue on tape a little bit is he’s picking up his dribble one dribble too soon going to the basket, so what’s ended up happening is he’s not high-jumping," Collins said. "He’s jumping sideways. When he jumps sideways, he’s shooting the ball over his shoulder and referees are not going to give him that foul because he’s the one leaning in. So we have to work with him. Grant Hill did that in Detroit. You have to take one more dribble and make sure you get contact. Once Jrue does that – what did he have, eight free throws today? – he can be shooting eight, 10 free throws every game. We’ll show him tape on that."

And Holiday knows it, too. After his 33-point, 13-assist performance, he said his inability to draw fouls could be the thing that keeps him from taking his game to the next level.

“To get to the next level, I do need to get to the free throw line more. Taking that extra dribble, because I take off so far (away), it’ll give me a better chance of getting to that guy’s body. The ones tonight, where I made the initial contact, that’s not a foul. That’s because I took from so far (away). If I take that extra dribble, and go up straight trying to get that contact, that’s what he’s talking about. Yeah, Lou Williams. He’s always at the free throw line. Even though some of them didn’t look like fouls, didn’t look like contact, he’s always there."

(That being said, I took the liberty of looking into trips to the foul line taken by a handful of the league's finer point guards this season, and Holiday's on par with all of them. Holiday has attempted 52 FT. While Chris Paul (66) and Deron Williams (60) have launched more, Rajon Rondo (31) and Greivis Vasquez have taken fewer.)