Harrison Barnes was terrible, and worse than terrible he was selfish. He is said to be an NBA talent, and I'll tell you this: Harrison Barnes has a talent for taking NBA shots. Spinning, fading jumpers from 19 feet? He can shoot those. Make them? Well, no. He can't make them. Not Friday, anyway, when he was guarded by non-NBA defenders who were four or five inches smaller, and 25 to 35 pounds lighter. This was the kind of game Barnes should have had his way -- as Tyler Zeller had his way -- but Barnes couldn't get out of his own way.
Not for lack of effort, though. Barnes shot and shot and shot some more. He took 16 shots all told, most of them difficult, and made three. He was two of nine on 3-pointers, air-balling one of them. He had five turnovers, the worst one in the final seconds of regulation when he decided -- unless Roy Williams decided for him, which would be embarrassing for ol' Roy -- to go one-on-one with the season on the line. It didn't work, of course, and nearly backfired all the way