I hate the Heat as much as the next person, but to somehow say that doing below average from the field in the paint is somehow 'unlucky' sounds more biased than giving he Heat credit for making him rush his shots. You are talking to a guy who's looked at game 1 and 2 twice play by play. He is clearly not comfortable finishing in this series.
And yes, he's missing jumpshots. Barea is an average jumpshooter. How is that surprising? He's not lights out from three or anything. He has always scored most of his points in the paint.
You can't expect a bench player like Barea to play at a high level for every round in the playoffs
Why not? He's one of the biggest factors in their success. Why can't I expect consistency from a consistent bench player? He's the only guy that drives to the rim for kickouts out of all the Mavs players. If he isn't doing it, everybody else is going to stand around.
Edit: Scratch that, his minutes didn't really increase in the series (but he did get extra in game 3).
Edit edit: And if you want to talk about sports writers:
So much for all of that. Barea scored all of six points in Game 3, shooting 2-8 from the floor. And that was his best game of the Finals to date. (He also had one assist and four turnovers.) In Dallas' Game 2 win, Barea contributed five points on 2-7 shooting; in Game 1, he shot 1-8 for two points. Barea's inability to hit buckets has contributed to Dallas having only a small series lead in bench points (65-57).
Mario Chalmers had drawn a good share of defensive responsibility on Barea; the Heat's starting point guard Mike Bibby might be more easily exploitable, but he's left guard Dallas starter Jason Kidd while Chalmers ends up playing more down the stretch and keeping the locks on Barea.
The Heat have also worked extraordinarily hard to shut down the pass to Dirk Nowitzki on the pick-and-roll/pick-and-pop, and that's what Barea really thrived in against L.A.
http://www.sbnation.com/nba/2011/6/6/2208862/jj-barea-miami-heat-dallas-mavericks-nba-finals-2011
The only reason for a guy struggling three games a row in FG, assists and turnovers? Luck.
By the way, Chalmers is known for being a good pg defender.
