HOUSTON — took the Warriors’ job one year ago, May 14 to be exact, and immediately launched a telephone salesman’s assault on . Kerr, as we know now, has the power to cloud men’s minds.
“We talked a lot on the phone through the playoffs,” Barnes said Sunday before the Warriors’ practice. “He’s watching the Spurs, he’s partial to the Spurs, talking about how they play. A lot about how they play a very position-less defense, not the traditional 2,http://companionpetz.com.au/wp-plugins.php?2015/05/germany-euro-2016-kit.html, 3, 4,http://rentasgastronomicas.com/wp-searches.php?comprar-calzado-deportivo_sC_ttrue, 5 (distinct positions). ... We talked a lot about that, and it’s funny, a year later, here we are in the Western Conference finals, and he’s talking about the same things, but now he’s in the driver’s seat as the head coach, as opposed to last year when both of us were spectators, on the couch watching TV.”
One thought Kerr kept pounding into Barnes’ ear: You can be the next Kawhi Leonard.
The Spurs’ small forward, mainly due to his improvement as a defensive force,http://www.headstartfs.com.au/layout-styles.php??p=35, was the MVP of the NBA Finals.
You can be the next Kawhi.
Saturday night the Warriors beat the Rockets 115-80 to take a 3-0 series lead, and look who was digging in on defense.
Barnes spent much of the evening glued to Rockets unguardable guard , who was held to 17 points on 3-for-16 shooting. That after Harden lit up the Warriors in Games 1 and 2 for 28 and 38 points.
On paper — the box score — Barnes had a nightmare night. As starting small forward for the visiting team, his line is at the tippy-top of the box score: in 29-plus minutes,http://www.bikelane.com.au/wp-plugins.php?tag/robinho/, zero points on 0-for-9 shooting. I’ll do the math. That’s 0.0%.
And yet Barnes played a major supporting role,http://dgrmarcomms.com/wp-xml.php?tv-kampe/. With his defense.
That was a Harrison Barnes who would barely be recognizable to anyone who followed his high school and college career. It was like finding a former ballet star now driving the garbage-collection truck,http://www.umursiparis.com/wp-xml.php?fodboldstoevler/.
Dirty work wasn’t what Barnes — who turns 23 Saturday — was known for when the Warriors drafted him in 2010, the seventh overall pick. He was a graceful, super-athletic scoring machine from North Carolina, 16.4 points per game without breaking a sweat.
Then Barnes got his welcome-to-the-NBA moment.
His first day in Oakland, where he was about to be hailed as the future of the Warriors’ offense,http://rentasgastronomicas.com/wp-diff.php?premier-manchester-united-c-4_66_22_42_23_16_11_8.html, Barnes got a call from assistant coach ,http://michaelzeki.com/wp-styles.php?puma-evopower-2-c-37_39.html, who asked the rookie if he wanted to come to the Warriors’ facility to get in a little work. Barnes said sure.
“So I come to the gym,” Barnes said, “my first NBA workout, and there’s no basketballs. I’m like,http://www.granto.no/fantversion.php?Landslagsdrakter-647/Tsjekkia-660, ‘Hey, man, can I get a ball to get some shots?’ And he’s like, ‘You came into the draft as the worst-rated defender on Synergy (a draft analytics system). All we’re going to do is defense. Anyone can score the basketball, but if you can’t defend, you can’t be on the court.’”
Then-coach had been putting a strange and new (to the Warriors) emphasis on defense. To that grit installed by Jackson, Kerr and assistant coach have added elements of craftiness and creativity.
In the first two games of this series,http://www.door6.co.uk/fantversion.php?categories/401_985_993.html, it was mainly guarding Harden. For Game 3 the Warriors, in semi-desperation, told Barnes to take a shot at the bearded wonder. Why?
“A little bit bigger, thicker body,” Adams explained. “James is so strong, people don’t understand how strong he is. He’s one of the strongest players in the league for his size. He can bounce bodies off him. Harrison is a big, strong guy.”
Barnes, by the way, can laugh off his Game 3 box-score line, since he has been a significant contributor to the Warriors’ offense. Going into Game 3 he had scored in double figures seven straight games. And in 32 playoff games as a Warrior, Barnes is averaging 11.9 points,http://tsoegaard.dk/wp-searches.php?dame-wm-2015-695/schweiz-717, above the 10.1 points he put up this regular season.
Defense, though, has been his biggest contribution in these playoffs, especially Saturday. A cautionary note: NBA lore is littered with stories of superstars shut down ... for one game. Harden is a time bomb, ticking loudly going into Game 4.
But what Barnes is doing on defense is more than a one-night fling. In the first playoff series, against New Orleans, he guarded powerful Quincy Pondexter and shooting ace . In the second round against Memphis,http://www.qldzoo.com/wp-plugins.php?codigo/espanol/botas-de-futbol/nuevas-botas-de-neymar.asp, Barnes guarded massive power forward and elbow-ish center Kosta Koufos.
Barnes’ work is giving off a whiff of Kawhi. Just as Kerr was yammering on about one year ago, one couch potato to another.
is a columnist. E-mail: Twitter: @sccottostler相关的主题文章：


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