Harrison Barnes ran for the rebound as soon as he saw Stephen Curry shoot from beyond the arc, corralling the ball in a crowd of defenders to give the Golden State Warriors a key possession in the final seconds. The rookie's hustle highlighted his breakout performance and was the kind of play Golden State had struggled to make during a two-game skid. Barnes also made a pair of critical free throws late to finish with 19 points and 13 rebounds as the Warriors held off the short-handed Atlanta Hawks 92-88 on Wednesday night. Golden State outrebounded Atlanta 44-29 to overcome 23 turnovers.
Lucky, lucky, lucky. Team is so sloppy with the ball (Hubie Brown "you must value the ball!"). Had the W's not turned it over so much, it would have been a blowout. Great to see Barnes bust out; nice athleticism and rebounding. Anyone else notice how Lee fights his own teammates for the rebounds? Doesn't anyone even say "Same" anymore? Curry and Thompson may have let the praise go to their heads because they are jacking up shots and not hitting. They need to go to the basket more.
Klay has looked awful the past couple of games. Hopefully he and Curry are just in a first-month slump. Both definitely struggle to get to the rim, though Klay does get there once or twice a game on drives that he didn't/couldn't do last season. Would love it if he forced the issue more, but I don't know if hes really capable with his average handle and mediocre athleticism. Nice game from Barnes. He looks like a better athlete than he ever did at UNC. He had the occasional explosive play at UNC but really didn't look all that fluid, rangy, flexible, etc. He looks much more like a pure/all around athlete and its making me feel better about him. Love his effort level on defense so far. Hes taking it slow as far as being assertive on offense. This was his most aggressive game and he was still fairly passive IMO. Hopefully he continues to build confidence. Hes been betting to the rim much more than I expected from him. We've already seen that hes a good shooter. One of his bigger strengths coming out of college was his inbetween game where he has a nice pull-up mid-range J. Hopefully we see him start using that as NBA defenses key in on his drives and 3 pt shooting.
