Bay Area Buzz 4/21: Sharks Surging; Barnes Arrives; Series Not Over

Through two games, Sharks-Kings proving everyone a liar

"The San Jose Sharks keep saying their series with the Los Angeles Kings won’t end up this way, that anyone who thinks so is clearly and unalterably nuts. Then they go out onto the rink and lie about it, and then come back and lie some more.On such duplicitous skills are series won. Keep saying the games you see won’t be the games you see, and eventually maybe even your opponent will stop trusting you.San Jose boatraced the Kings Sunday, 7-2, making Thursday’s 6-3 win a taut affair by comparison. The Sharks were quicker and bigger from top to bottom, and essentially made a hash of everything L.A. coach Darryl Sutter thought could work. In other words, the Sharks have more goals after two games in this series than they did in the entirety of their second-round loss to the Kings last year, and rendered Kings goalie Jonathan Quick a javelin catcher.Which is exactly what they swear cannot continue, the fibbing fibbers.“We’ve had a couple of great nights offensively, but more games like this . . . uhh, no,” said defenseman Justin Braun, who scored what turned into the winning goal as part of a ten-minute flurry in the second period that negated a 2-0 Kings lead. “We obviously can’t be disappointed with the goals we’ve scored, but they’re a good team and the games aren’t all going to be like this.”Braun is probably correct, because this is not the hockey of the 1980s, but there is no available evidence based on the first two games to back up his claim.And not just his claim, mind you, but also the claim of Mike Brown, who scored the first goal and was named the game’s first star for the first time in his entire life; of Raffi Torres, who scored the second goal and heard his name being chanted throughout the duration of the evening; of Joe Thornton, who never doesn’t say that, and of coach Todd McLellan, who has finally been given, developed and learned to trust a four-line team.“The scores are irrelevant,” he said with a snippy tone in his voice as if to prevent anyone from suckering him into a “Did you know the Kings were this outmanned before the series?” kind of questioning. “These could be two three-overtime wins and they would count exactly the same. You don’t get extra points for scoring.”No, but you set an overwhelming tone that seeps into both your own dressing room and that of the other team as well. Indeed, if not for the fact that the Kings won a Cup two years ago and smothered the Sharks offensively last year, the assumption that this series is over would be far closer to being actually provable.First, the Sharks’ fourth line of Brown, Torres and Andrew Desjardins has overwhelmed the Kings’ mixed-and-matched offerings (Sutter played only 11 forwards, which meant most of his lines were fluid) with both their speed and persistence.Second, the third line which was originally James Sheppard between Matt Nieto and Tommy Wingels, got dramatically more dynamic when Joe Pavelski was moved to third-line center for Sheppard and Wingels, while Nieto moved to right wing on the Logan Couture line. This seemingly subtle but pointed choice was done to exacerbate the Kings’ speed shortcomings there, and eventually not only worked but spread to the top two lines as well. By game’s end, the Kings didn’t even have the prickliness to engage in any tone-setting for Game 3, so badly was Game 2 lost.And third, Quick, who was Olympic-level brilliant in the first period, was overwhelmed in the second and third, as he was in the first two periods Thursday. He has now allowed 12 goals on 68 shots (.an 823 percentage) and 99:44 (a goals against average of nearly 7.20), ridiculous numbers for the league’s best regular season defense.And the fault is not all Quick’s, not by a long shot. The Kings as a team are playing both slower and smaller than a year ago, and the Sharks are commensurately faster and bigger. They forechecked with greater purpose and energy than the Kings’ defense could cope, and the longer the game ran, the more profound the imbalance became.In short, the best series as pre-advertised has been the most lopsided one, and there is no close second. Unless the Kings have a reserve we have not seen, or the Sharks give way to the impulse to think they have herded the cattle merely by opening the corral gate, this series looks like it will prove everyone a great big liar, player and pundit alike."

–Ray Ratto, CSNBayArea.com

In Barnes, Warriors may have modest superhero

"Eons ago, when Harrison Barnes was a North Carolina high school and college phenom likened to the mighty Jordan, the kid got a nickname: The Black Falcon.You don’t drag that kind of high-falutin’ nickname into the NBA unless you’re a certified god. King James and the Black Mamba can name-drop their own nicknames without a trace of irony.So when the Warriors call Barnes Black Falcon, it’s in fun, not reverence. Really, a better fit for Barnes would be the Mystery Falcon, because you never know what kind of performance you’ll get from him, or when he’ll show up to save the day.It’s a superhero nickname, and based on Barnes’ playoff performance last season and in Saturday’s Game 1 win over the Clippers, he has a mysterious ability to raise his game when the heat is on.After struggling much of the season, Barnes soared over the Clippers for 14 points and eight rebounds, and he starred in maybe the game’s key sequence.The Clippers led by one point with 1:49 left in regulation when L.A. guard Chris Paul went up for a jumper in transition. Barnes got a piece of the ball, which went to Klay Thompson, who pushed it back the other way, passing to Barnes behind the arc. With no hesitation Barnes drilled a three-pointer, his third of the game.“I thought they made all the big (plays), they made the big shots,” Clippers coach Doc Rivers said Sunday. “Harrison Barnes, in transition, to take the three … and make it, was huge. … That was a big play.”When I told Barnes that Rivers had singled out his shot, he seemed surprised.“Oh, ah,” Barnes stammered, “there were so many different plays that could have been the turning point.” He named four other plays, none involving him, and said, “I don’t think I could take credit for the key play.”The Mystery Falcon lets others sing his praises. Barnes, 21, is a low-key, modest fellow, which may be his problem, although I’m no psychologist.People close to the team, and Barnes himself, have suggested that he thinks and worries too much. Bad games drive him to the gym for intense workouts, which lead to deeper disappointment if he doesn’t see an instant positive return.Barnes even said his huge three in Game 1 was made possible by the fact that the opportunity took him by surprise.“Klay’s pushing the ball and I’m running the court, and Steph (Curry), I mean Steph iswide open in the corner, he’s wide open, so I’m like, ‘OK, he’s going to Steph,’ and he passes it to me. It’s one of those plays where I just caught it and shot it. I didn’t look at the shot clock, I didn’t (think about) what was going on, because had I done that, I probably would have missed it.”Barnes added: “Sometimes you overthink. In a situation like that … (you should be thinking), ‘What’s the best thing to do?’ Running up the court, down two, with a fresh 24 (shot clock), shooting a three in transition’s probably not the best shot.”He was on autopilot in that moment, but clearly Barnes has analyzed the shot since. Some say that kind of thinking is a reason he hasn’t lived up to his No. 7 overall draft status, averaging 9.2 points and 4.1 rebounds as a rookie, and 9.5 and 4.0 this season.But in the playoffs? In last season’s 12 for-real games, he averaged 16.1 points and 6.4 rebounds. He was a flying force.Could it be that Barnes is that rare bird, the antichoker? Wake me up when the playoffs start, boys. If so, maybe that’s because Barnes gets a clean slate every April.“I had some pretty low points in the regular season,” Barnes said, “so I know it can only get better, it couldn’t get any worse. I think that’s where I have a lot of confidence.”Think of that: Confidence born of despair that you can’t sink any lower. I asked Barnes if he gets down on himself.“Not necessarily down,” he said. “Obviously, you want to do better. I put a lot of work in on my game, so when you’re not seeing it night in and night out, you’re not making shots, two bad games going to three, going to five, going to 10, it’s rough to stick with it. But you know eventually you’re going to get up.”"

–Scott Ostler, San Francisco Chronicle

Sharks win, but series far from over

"Calm down, citizens. Playoff series are best-of-seven. They are not best-of-two.Therefore, that the Sharks spent much of Sunday night making the Los Angeles Kings look like befuddled and slow Southern California commuters on the Santa Monica Freeway in sore need of a defensive Botox injection … well, do not get too caught up in the froth.The Sharks’ 7-2 victory was impressive. But it still merely means they have a 2-0 series lead with two more games left to win — against a Kings team that a year ago fell behind two games to none against the St. Louis Blues in a playoff series but came back to win it.“We’ve got a big test in a couple of nights,” said Sharks forward Raffi Torres, speaking of Tuesday’s Game 3 at Staples Center. “We’re kidding ourselves if we think it’s going to be like this in L.A.”Torres is correct. But man, it sure was fun to see the Kings try to play Whack-A-Shark at SAP Center. Whack-A-Shark is a little like the arcade game Whack-A-Mole, except with more spearing penalties and blood.Sunday’s Whack-A-Shark game started in the second period when the home team’s offense came alive. Up would pop one Shark — look, it’s Mike Brown! — to score a goal. And the Kings would give him special attention. Then up would pop another Shark — hey, it’s Raffi Torres! — for the next goal. The Kings would then whack at Torres (who bled from a cut over his right eye) only to see another Shark — yikes, Justin Braun! –score the next one.This went on for four more goals by four other Sharks, in an offensive performance remarkably similar to the 6-3 victory in last Thursday night’s Game 1.Torres and Brown and Andrew Desjardins, the fourth line unit for our beloved Los Tiburones, will rightfully receive praise for igniting Sunday’s offensive outburst after Los Angeles took a 2-0 first-period lead. But a strategic move by Sharks coach Todd McLellan also played a part.Was it pure coincidence? The Sharks offense seemed to shift into a different gear when McLellan made a bold choice to shift Joe Pavelski’s job assignment from a first-line winger to a third-line centerman about five minutes into the second period. This put rookie Tomas Hertl back on the first line with Joe Thornton and Brent Burns, with Pavelski skating alongside James Sheppard and Tommy Wingels.McLellan said he made the move on the fly when he noticed that the Kings “had us running around a bit” and chasing the puck. So he tapped Pavelski on the shoulder.“Pavs’ best spot is at the center ice position — I believe that,” McLellan said. “Whether we stay with that remains to be seen.”Centerman, in fact, is the position that Pavelski played for the USA at the Sochi Olympics. But early in the season, when Hertl was injured, McLellan had moved Pavelski alongside Thornton and Burns on the team’s first line. Pavelski responded with the most dynamic scoring season of his career. So McLellan was loathe to make the switch back.The loathing ended Sunday, to good results. With Pavelski winning more faceoffs on the third line to free up the fleet Sheppard on the wing, and with the speedy Hertl on the Thornton line, the Sharks kept beating the Kings down the ice and creating more chances — although Pavelski wasn’t certain the whole thing was an X’s-and-0’s deal at all.“I think we just started playing better,” Pavelski said. “We need everyone to beat this team.”This will indeed prove to be true, it says here, despite the routs in the first two games. The Sharks have not found Staples to be a friendly opposing rink lately. They lost all four of their playoff games in Los Angeles last spring and were 0-1-1 at the Staples Center this season. The Sharks’ last regulation victory in L.A. was three years ago, during the 2011 playoff series between the teams.“We can’t really look at these two games and think the whole series is going to go this way,” Brown said. “We know they’re good. We can’t change anything. We’ve got to do the same thing down there.”One problem for the Kings, a proud group, is that they might be slowed by injuries to their defensive corps. After Sunday’s game, L.A. coach Darryl Sutter confirmed that he dressed seven defensemen for the game rather than the usual eight because he wasn’t certain that some of the “D” people could make it through the entire night. They all did. But they didn’t look great."

–Mark Purdy, San Jose Mercury News