Golden State Warriors Game 3 Report Card vs. Denver Nuggets

Harrison Barnes – B/B+

Harrison Barnes played well last night, not as well as he played in Game 2, but certainly well enough to earn the respect of those who thought the rookie forward was unprepared to take on a bigger role in Golden State’s offense during the postseason.

Jackson once again opted to start Barnes at power forward, though it seemed as though he had originally planned to go with a larger lineup using Carl Landry at the four and Barnes at small forward. The decision to go small worked (again) – Barnes finished the night with 19 points on 7-15 shooting, including a trio of timely threes that helped make up for Klay Thompson’s inability to shoot from the perimeter.

My one complaint about Barnes’ game has to do with his continued reliance on mid-range jumpers. The Black Falcon (horrible, horrible nickname) went 4-for-5 on shots around the perimeter, 2-for-3 from the restricted area and 1-for-5 from mid-range.

With the Warriors playing small – and a now-healthy Kenneth Faried crashing the boards – those kinds of misses create opportunities for Denver to score in transition.