Dallas Mavericks: Harrison Barnes impresses in NBA Africa Game

After the announcement came down that both Harrison Barnes and Dennis Smith Jr. would be representing the Dallas Mavericks in the 2018 NBA Africa Game, only Barnes ended up playing for the team. Barnes was impressive in the game, leading Team World to victory.

The NBA participated in the third ever NBA Africa game over this last weekend and sent many of the NBA’s star players to Pretoria, South Africa for the exhibition game. DeMar DeRozan and Joel Embiid were billed as the headliners, but only one of those two ended up playing, while others (like Dallas Mavericks forward, Harrison Barnes) helped lead Team World.

The game was played on August 4th, early in the day here in the US. Although both teams were full of NBA talent, Team World came away with the victory yet again, keeping Team Africa winless in the competition still. Despite the loss, the star of the game was Joel Embiid, representing his birth country of Cameroon.

Other African nations with representatives include South Sudan (Luol Deng), Benin (Ian Mahinmi), Nigeria (Al-Farouq Aminu), Democratic Republic of the Congo (Bismack Biyombo), Mali (Cheick Diallo), Algeria (Evan Fournier), Congo (Serge Ibaka), and Mozambique (Clarisse Machanguana, formerly of the WNBA).

For Team World, all the representatives were from the US other than Danilo Gallinari of Italy.

Gallinari ended up taking the game MVP after his impressive performance vs. Team Africa. Although Embiid had a great game as well, Gallinari got the title thanks to him being on the winning team. He ended up with an impressive stat line of 23 points, 8 rebounds, and 3 assists. The real story was his efficiency as he went 9-10 from the field, including 3-3 from three point.

Joel Embiid was the leading scorer in the game with 24 points on 9-18 shooting. He also grabbed 8 rebounds and dished 4 assists. Perhaps the most impressive number of the game was Embiid’s 5 fouls.

Embiid and Gallinari put together solid outings, but only Harrison Barnes was able to earn a double-double in the contest. He finished with 14 points, 11 rebounds and 2 steals. He also shot 3-7 from three-point, something that should give Mavs fans hope in the upcoming season.

Other players in the Africa game who scored in double-digits include: Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot (16), Luol Deng (14), Evan Fournier (10), JaVale McGee (11), Marvin Williams (11), Hassan Whiteside (11), Khris Middleton (10).

Two former WNBA players also participated in the game, one for each team. Swin Cash of Team World earned an assist and missed her only shot during her four minutes of playing time. Clarisse Machanguana, for Team Africa, missed her only two shots during her four minutes of game time.

This has been a cool event over the years and the NBA hopes to continue to spread the influence of basketball around the world. Dallas Mavericks players have been happy to compete in the exhibition game in the past and will likely be willing to do so in the future as well. Either way, it was fun to see Harrison Barnes play well in the game this year and we look forward to seeing what he can do in the regular season.