Harrison Barnes held the ball in the closing seconds Sunday at Chase Center with a chance to steal Game 4 for the Kings.
Catching a pass from Clutch Player of the Year De'Aaron Fox, who was double-teamed by the Warriors, Barnes lined up an open look from 3-point range. It clanked off the rim. The final buzzer sounded, and the Warriors took Game 4 to even the NBA playoff series at two games apiece.
Barnes kept his head up as he walked back into the Kings' locker room.
“After you learn to put yourself together after 2016, I think one shot is not necessarily going to faze you," Barnes told reporters after the loss. "For me, it’s all about trusting the process.”
Barnes still faces criticism from Warriors fans for his shortcomings in the 2016 NBA Finals. A starter for Golden State, Barnes shot 15.6 percent from the field (5 for 32) over the last three games as the Warriors infamously failed to close out the Finals against LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers after grabbing a three-games-to-one series lead. Those ended up being Barnes' final three games in a Warriors uniform.
Seven years later, Barnes missed his chance at revenge in the final seconds of Game 4, but he won't linger on it for long.
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"Got a good look," Barnes said. "We missed it. But at the end of the day, the way we’re playing, the way we’re in this series right now, we just have to continue to do that."
Kings teammates rushed to Barnes' defense after the game.
"I always think when he shoots it’s going to go in," Kings rookie Keegan Murray said. "I was just under the basket. I thought it was going to go in. It looked good; it hit the back of the iron. We’ll take that any day of the week."
"It was a good look," guard Kevin Huerter agreed. "Kick out. We’ll live with the results, but it was a good look.”
The Kings, who shot 27.3 percent from beyond the arc over the series' first three games, finally got things going in Game 4. Murray exploded for five 3-pointers. Fox drained four.
They just couldn't hit from deep in the closing seconds when it mattered most.
"We gave ourselves a chance to win," coach Mike Brown said. "We had a wide-open look from the 3-point line. You couldn’t ask for anything more than that."