Harrison Barnes said the San Antonio Spurs current stretch against top teams is about learning playoff-level habits, not just wins and losses. The veteran stressed physicality, focus, and limiting mistakes as key areas San Antonio must improve to succeed in the postseason.
San Antonio Spurs veteran Harrison Barnes believes the team's current stretch against top competition is less about wins and more about learning how to play playoff-level basketball.
Harrison Barnes
Harrison Barnes
Harrison Barnes
MIN: 28.92
PTS: 11.48 (51.95%)
REB: 3.13
As: 2.2
ST: 0.83
BL: 0.13
TO: 0.98
GM: 40
With Victor Wembanyama and the Spurs facing four straight games against teams expected to be in the postseason, Barnes said the focus is on building habits that will matter later in the season.
“At this point in time, I think it's, ‘How do we instill the habits that we want to learn from those,'” Barnes said per ClutchPoints.
Barnes explained that San Antonio has already been tested in physical matchups, pointing to recent games against the New York Knicks. The Spurs lost to New York in the NBA Cup before responding with a stronger showing on New Year's Eve.
“We've been through that in the Knicks game. Both the Knicks games that we played were extremely physical. The first game that they beat us, they were the more physical team. The last time we came here, it was an extremely physical game,” Barnes said after the Spurs' narrow loss in Minneapolis.
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The forward also highlighted multiple matchups against Oklahoma City Thunder, noting how quickly the intensity ramps up against elite teams.
“The OKC games that we played were extremely physical games,” Barnes said, referencing three meetings with the Thunder in just 12 days. So, at this point in time guys have been in that, quote, unquote, ‘playoff-style atmosphere,'” he added.
For Barnes, the key moving forward is execution. He stressed that mistakes, not talent, have been the difference in several losses.
“But I think for us, it's a matter of can we not repeat the same mistakes? If we're going to lose a game, it's going to have to be because we dictated on our terms that they did what we wanted them to do rather than it was just a breakdown or it was just a forgotten box-out or a forgotten X-out or things like that.”
San Antonio sits second in the Western Conference at 27-12, though the team has lost five of its last nine games during this demanding stretch.
Barnes continues to play a steady role, averaging 11.5 points, 3.1 rebounds, and 2.2 assists.
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