Harrington Shrugs Playing Less

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'><span id="iba2_siteCss"><span id="iba2_siteCss"> OAKLAND &mdash; The Golden State Warriors practiced lightly on Monday, a conservation measure brought on in part by the nature of their last game, a 123-113 loss against the Los Angeles Lakers, and their next, a meeting tonight with the San Antonio Spurs.

Few teams have been able to exploit the Warriors' interior weaknesses over the years in the manner of those two teams.</p>

Yet it's not just backsides and biceps that get bruised in such contests. Egos can take a beating tool.</p>

Warriors forward Al Harrington was unusually subdued Sunday after the defeat in Los Angeles, which was understandable given the circumstances. After being brought in off the bench with little advance warning for the first time since Nov.2, he played 16 minutes, collecting six points on 2-for-6 shooting (1-for-5 on 3-pointers), one rebound and three fouls.</p>

Before he went to Golden State in a January trade, Harrington played at least 20 minutes or more in 199 consecutive appearances for the Atlanta Hawks and Indiana Pacers. But in his last 28 games as a Warrior, Harrington has come upshort of that mark on seven occasions &mdash; including Sunday's game and the Warriors' 120-113 victory against Miami on Friday.</p>

"It's an adjustment, and it's a tough one," Harrington said. "It kind of puts me back in the mind-set of when I was younger in the league: When you go out there, you've just got to make the best of your minutes. The more productive you are out there, the more minutes you'll <span id="iba2_siteCss"><span id="iba2_siteCss"> play. I think that's the situation I'm in right now."

Of late, Harrington has not been producing much, shooting a combined 16-for-46 (34.8 percent) from the floor in the Warriors' last four games. That makes it tougher for Warriors coach Don Nelson to use Harrington for long stretches, since his most potent weapon is to punish bigger, slower players with his shooting range.</p>

"(Harrington) is going to play every game, and he's going to be a big part of whatever we do," Nelson insisted. "His ability to play some center and put the (opposing) centers at a disadvantage is really important to me and the style of our team."</p>

This problem is not unique to Harrington. Nelson's coaching style is based on squeezing the most out of mismatches, so players are often shuttled in and out depending on whom the opposition has on the floor.</p>

But where Baron Davis, Stephen Jackson and Monta Ellis have all been pretty much immune to such concerns this season, Harrington has not.</p>

Instead, Harrington owns the most extensive resume of any player who's caught in the Nelson blender. Warriors such as Troy Hudson and Austin Croshere have already undergone reductions in their minutes previously in their careers.</p>

"(Harrington) is not the only one who's dealing with it," said Croshere, who is averaging 6.1 minutes this season in games where he's healthy. "Nobody else is really exempt from it except for those two guys (Davis and Jackson). So you don't take it personal. We're trying to win games, so you just trust that coach has the best interests of the team at heart."</p>

Harrington knows that the best response is to keep his head down and stick to the work, regardless of how sporadic it might be in the short-term.</p>

"It's not something that's consistent," Harrington said. "Obviously, I want to play more minutes, and I'm sure I will, so I'm not really worried about it. ..."</p>

Harrington paused for a moment before adding: "As of right now."</div></p>

Source: Inside the Bay Area</p>
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