DALLAS – Although shooting 3-point shots appear to be all the rage in the NBA today, it’s never really been Harrison Barnes’ cup of tea.
Until late last season when the Dallas Mavericks’ forward was 27-of-67 for a very respectable 40.3 percent from downtown during his final 10 games of the year.
So far this season Barnes is 18-of-50 from 3-point territory for 36 percent. That includes converting 5-of-8 from downtown during this past Wednesday’s 119-113 victory over the Brooklyn Nets.
The only time Barnes has made more than five 3-pointers in a game in his career occurred when he went 7-of-12 on 3-pointers during an Oct. 28, 2017 contest against the Philadelphia 76ers.
“I try to take wherever the shots come in the system,” Barnes said after Friday’s practice at the Lympo practice facilities. “I’ve had up and down success just in terms of them going in, but it felt good to finally see some go in and hopefully I can just build off that.”
Just because Barnes has found some success lately drilling 3-pointers, that doesn’t necessarily mean he plans on abandoning his patented mid-range jumper.
“Lately I’ve been getting a lot of threes, but it’s not like I’m making a conscious effort to say I’m going to shoot more threes and less mid-ranges,” Barnes said. “I’ve got to keep the mid-range game alive. I shot some the last game.
“Some of us, we’re antique. Whatever shot I can get that’s a clean look that happens in the flow of the offense, I’ll take that.”
Overall against the Nets, Barnes was 10-of-20 from the field and tallied a season-high 28 points. The seven-year veteran scored 13 points in the first quarter when the Mavs got off to a 34-32 start.
“I like the aggressive attacks, the angles, the driving angles,” coach Rick Carlisle said. “He’s put the reps in on a lot of the plays that he made at the end of the game, which is great to see.
“He’s just got to continue approaching it the same way.”
And that includes looking for and taking the 3-point shots when they’re available.
“We want to get him as many quality looks from three as we can,” Carlisle said. “And they’re not super easy to come by, because everybody’s looking to take them away.”
The 28 points Barnes scored against the Nets were the most since he poured in 30 points against Cleveland on Apr. 1. It also came after he scored just 10 points on 3-of-14 shooting – he was 1-of-7 from 3-point range – during this past Monday’s 98-88 loss in Memphis.
“I was just trying to be aggressive from the start,” Barnes said. “Coming off that Memphis loss we felt like that was a game that we had a chance to win.
“We weren’t able to get over the hump, so coming in against Brooklyn – another team on a back-to-back – we wanted to try and capitalize on that.”
Barnes and the Mavs will try and capitalize on another team on a back-to-back when they entertain the Boston Celtics on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at American Airlines Center. The Celtics (9-9) are playing at Atlanta on Friday night and will fly to Dallas after that game.
If the Mavs defeat the Celtics, they’ll be 9-9 and at .500 for the first time since Oct. 24 when they were 2-2.
“It means a lot to get to .500, but at the same time we’re just taking it game-by-game,” said Barnes, who shot 35.7 percent from 3-point land last season. “We’ve seen how a bad start can have a reflection on us, and then a four-game winning streak can kind of change the season around.
“So we’re taking it game-by-game and we’re seeing where we’re at.”
Barnes knows the Mavs weren’t in a good place earlier this season, hence the 2-7 start. Part of that was because they were trying to incorporate two new players into the starting lineup in DeAndre Jordan and Luka Doncic.
And part of it was because a third starter – Barnes – was sidelined for a month after he strained his right hamstring in the first week of training camp. The injured forced Barnes to miss all four preseason games and the first four games of the regular season.
“There was a point and time where it was like, ‘Dang, our starting five has not been on the court together for any extended period of time,’ ” Barnes said. “Not in the summer, (not) in training camp, (not in) the first (four) games, so it takes time.
“This group, I feel like, we’ve been through some adversity. We battled through that and we’re still trying to figure out who we are, but playing together, we’ve got that down.”
The Mavs have it “down” thanks to Barnes and the improvements he’s made at the 3-point line.
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