Barea a Big Deal in Dallas
Apr 10, 2009
By: Tropics Staff
Barea's Making Sizable Contributions for Dallas Mavericks
03:53 AM CDT on Friday, April 10, 2009
By EDDIE SEFKO / The Dallas Morning News
esefko@dallasnews.com
J.J. Barea's journey as an NBA player is by no means complete. If it were one of his fearless drives to the basket, he'd be somewhere between blowing by his defender and sizing up the big man waiting to dish out a painful greeting.
But in one way, his trip is finished. He's left the novelty act behind, and he's never going back. He's become a full-blown threat for the Mavericks rather than a change-of-pace reserve without a clear role.
The Mavericks have won four of their last five games, and Barea has been doing a bang-up job of slicing through defenses, creating shots, and most important as far as coach Rick Carlisle is concerned, cutting down on mistakes.
Barea, who at 6-0 is the shortest player on the team, has averaged 11.6 points and 4.6 assists and has six turnovers in the five games. He's played a shade under 23 minutes per game.
"His ability to get to the rim is something he's always had," Carlisle said. "I'm more impressed with the fact that he's getting the ball in the lane under control and making a lot of plays for other people. He's eliminated a lot of the turnovers and situations where he gets up in the air and gets charges.
"I never questioned his ability to get shots and get to the rim. I'm really more pleased at the progress he's made as a playmaker."
Barea has been getting to the basket since he was a kid. But he says it's a little tougher with players like New Orleans' David West waiting in the paint than it was against the neighborhood kids back in Puerto Rico.
Barea said he's refined his art of driving to the rim this season, his third in the NBA.
"I always like to finish at the rim," he said. "That's what I enjoy the most. But in this league, you have to pick your spots.
"You've got to check and see who's in the game, if they have shot-blockers. And I'm trying to do a better job of getting it high off the glass, jumping a little bit further out and letting it go a little quicker. I used to hold it too long."
One of the biggest hurdles he's crossed is learning not to get frustrated when he gets a shot blocked or doesn't get a call from the referee after initiating contact.
If you're not getting an occasional shot swatted away, it probably means you're not being aggressive enough to test the defense.
"Most of the time, it's good for us because we need to drive a little more and try to get people in foul trouble and create some easy buckets," he said.
Barea has been fighting an injury to his left shoulder, which pops out of place on occasion. He has been wearing a support sleeve for the last couple of weeks and said he plans to continue to wear it the rest of the season.
After that, he'll work on strengthening the muscles around the shoulder. Barea said he doesn't believe surgery will be necessary.
In the meantime, he'll concentrate on slicing up opposing defenses with his drives to the bucket.
"He knows at this point of the season that they are keyed in on him when he comes into the game because he's gotten into the lane and had success," Jason Terry said. "Now he's learning when to take the shot or make the pass. That's what's going to take his game to the next level. His confidence has never been lacking. It's just being alert to what the defense is doing against you."
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