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Brent Barry's deep thoughts
By Marc Stein, ESPN.com
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/playoffs2005/dailydime?page=dailydime-050522
PHOENIX -- There was a time, many months back, when the name nominated for Best Free Agent Signing O' The Summer was rarely Steve Nash.
It was usually Brent Barry.
Barry, not Nash, was the guy widely billed as the missing piece for a championship contender. Even more than the eventual MVP of the whole league, Barry was initially seen as the potentially perfect fit for his new team.
It took only 100 games or so for Bones to dislodge the weight of those expectations.
It finally happened for the slender shooter in Game 1 of the Western Conference finals -- Game 104 of the season for the San Antonio Spurs, counting exhibitions. After two weeks of self-loathing throughout a nightmare series against his former employers from Seattle, Barry dropped 21 clutch points Sunday, including back-to-back triples inside the final five minutes to stretch a two-point Spurs lead to eight. Despite a wrecking-ball 41 points from Amare Stoudemire and a ho-hum 29 points and 13 assists from Nash, the Phoenix Suns never got closer than six thereafter in a 121-114 defeat.
"A lot of people have talked about a lot of the things I'm supposed to bring to the table for this team," Barry said. "This year, I've been battling and trying to get out of my own way. For at least an afternoon I was able to do that."
Barry watched with envy in the previous round when Nash somehow outshined his new MVP trophy by playing the series of his life against his old pals from Dallas. Bones would have settled for a fraction of that performance against the Sonics but didn't manage even that, regressing to the point that he was pulled from the starting lineup before Game 5 and replaced by Manu Ginobili.
The struggles sapped Barry of what little confidence he had left after a regular season that didn't go much better. After shooting 50.4 percent from the field and 45.2 percent on 3-pointers in his final Sonics season, Barry slumped to 42.3 percent and 35.7 percent in those categories as a Spur.
Yet Barry never lost the support of his teammates. He told Tim Duncan before Sunday's series opener, "I owe it to you guys to play well." Duncan told Barry to relax and stop beating himself up, and Robert Horry offered a similar message.
"I told him, 'I know how you feel,' " Horry said, recalling his own failures last spring in an emotional second-round showdown with the Lakers after leaving Hollywood for South Texas. "He wanted to beat them more than anything. I told him: 'Now the pressure's off. We got this off your back.' "
Barry and Horry then proceeded to combine for 7-for-12 shooting from long distance and 33 points overall in today's Game 1. That helped keep the lane open for the Spurs' two hobbling stars -- Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili -- to combine with Tony Parker for a whopping 77 points.
The challenge now, of course, is doing it more than once, but Barry was cautiously hopeful in the victorious locker room. He thinks he knows what he's been doing wrong -- pressing -- and believes that Sunday's 13-point salvo in the fourth quarter "can cure a lot of ills" floating in his head.
Whether it does or doesn't, you needn't worry about Barry losing his All-Star sense of humor, heavily self-deprecating and treasured here in Dimedom. Asked if he's been trying too hard all season, Barry said: "Gee, lemme think."
Pick And ... Pop
San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich turned the tide in the fourth quarter by changing his defense against the Suns' trademark pick-and-roll play.
For three quarters, Steve Nash was burning the Spurs on this play. Nash would come off the screen clear and the Spurs' big man would be reluctant to step forward and pick him up, leaving him with an easy jump shot.
But when Nash returned with 10 minutes left in the fourth, Popovich changed tactics. His big men raced out to trap Nash on the perimeter and force the ball out of his hands, leaving the Suns' offense in the hands of others after he was forced to unload the ball.
From that point until one minute remained, the Suns registered just 12 points. That key sequence allowed the Spurs to gain control of the game, giving them the road win they needed.
– John Hollinger
By Marc Stein, ESPN.com
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/playoffs2005/dailydime?page=dailydime-050522
PHOENIX -- There was a time, many months back, when the name nominated for Best Free Agent Signing O' The Summer was rarely Steve Nash.
It was usually Brent Barry.
Barry, not Nash, was the guy widely billed as the missing piece for a championship contender. Even more than the eventual MVP of the whole league, Barry was initially seen as the potentially perfect fit for his new team.
It took only 100 games or so for Bones to dislodge the weight of those expectations.
It finally happened for the slender shooter in Game 1 of the Western Conference finals -- Game 104 of the season for the San Antonio Spurs, counting exhibitions. After two weeks of self-loathing throughout a nightmare series against his former employers from Seattle, Barry dropped 21 clutch points Sunday, including back-to-back triples inside the final five minutes to stretch a two-point Spurs lead to eight. Despite a wrecking-ball 41 points from Amare Stoudemire and a ho-hum 29 points and 13 assists from Nash, the Phoenix Suns never got closer than six thereafter in a 121-114 defeat.
"A lot of people have talked about a lot of the things I'm supposed to bring to the table for this team," Barry said. "This year, I've been battling and trying to get out of my own way. For at least an afternoon I was able to do that."
Barry watched with envy in the previous round when Nash somehow outshined his new MVP trophy by playing the series of his life against his old pals from Dallas. Bones would have settled for a fraction of that performance against the Sonics but didn't manage even that, regressing to the point that he was pulled from the starting lineup before Game 5 and replaced by Manu Ginobili.
The struggles sapped Barry of what little confidence he had left after a regular season that didn't go much better. After shooting 50.4 percent from the field and 45.2 percent on 3-pointers in his final Sonics season, Barry slumped to 42.3 percent and 35.7 percent in those categories as a Spur.
Yet Barry never lost the support of his teammates. He told Tim Duncan before Sunday's series opener, "I owe it to you guys to play well." Duncan told Barry to relax and stop beating himself up, and Robert Horry offered a similar message.
"I told him, 'I know how you feel,' " Horry said, recalling his own failures last spring in an emotional second-round showdown with the Lakers after leaving Hollywood for South Texas. "He wanted to beat them more than anything. I told him: 'Now the pressure's off. We got this off your back.' "
Barry and Horry then proceeded to combine for 7-for-12 shooting from long distance and 33 points overall in today's Game 1. That helped keep the lane open for the Spurs' two hobbling stars -- Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili -- to combine with Tony Parker for a whopping 77 points.
The challenge now, of course, is doing it more than once, but Barry was cautiously hopeful in the victorious locker room. He thinks he knows what he's been doing wrong -- pressing -- and believes that Sunday's 13-point salvo in the fourth quarter "can cure a lot of ills" floating in his head.
Whether it does or doesn't, you needn't worry about Barry losing his All-Star sense of humor, heavily self-deprecating and treasured here in Dimedom. Asked if he's been trying too hard all season, Barry said: "Gee, lemme think."
Pick And ... Pop
San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich turned the tide in the fourth quarter by changing his defense against the Suns' trademark pick-and-roll play.
For three quarters, Steve Nash was burning the Spurs on this play. Nash would come off the screen clear and the Spurs' big man would be reluctant to step forward and pick him up, leaving him with an easy jump shot.
But when Nash returned with 10 minutes left in the fourth, Popovich changed tactics. His big men raced out to trap Nash on the perimeter and force the ball out of his hands, leaving the Suns' offense in the hands of others after he was forced to unload the ball.
From that point until one minute remained, the Suns registered just 12 points. That key sequence allowed the Spurs to gain control of the game, giving them the road win they needed.
– John Hollinger
