There’s no real good video of Matt Barnes punching an opponent in a Pro-Am game in San Francisco, but Barnes explains his actions after the game.

“He elbowed me and pushed me, so he got one,” Barnes told ESPN.com college basketball writer Diamond Leung.

“People just think they can talk any way or do anything to … me. You can’t. You can’t do that, ’cause you know people are men out here. So if you think you’re going to come out here and punk someone, that s— ain’t happening.”

Barnes said that he wasn’t the instigator and was just protecting himself.

“That’s part of the game, man. It’s physical,” he said. “You know what I mean? People come out here and think they can beat and push on me. There’s only so much I’m going to take. I’m a grown man first, so if you think you’re going to come out here and rough me up and cheap-shot, I’m not having that s—.”

I wonder what the nature of the “elbow” and “pushing” was to merit a punch to the face. It’s interesting that he’s taking the “I was just defending myself” defense here.

Matt Barnes announced via Twitter that he was going to join the Raptors on a two-year deal worth $10 million. Yay! But wait, the Raptors already used the bulk of their mid-level exception on Linas Kleiza. They must be working out a sign-and-trade with Orlando. Yay! But wait…

The Magic, though, are prevented by salary-cap rules from starting a sign-and-trade deal for Barnes at higher than $2 million, because Orlando doesn’t have Barnes’ full Bird rights after employing him for only one season. A sign-and-trade deal would also have to span at least three years, although only the first year is required to be guaranteed.

Barnes was initially believed to be on the verge of signing with a title contender late last week — such as Miami, Boston or the Los Angeles Lakers — when the Raptors made an aggressive late rush to join the bidding.

Barnes also gave serious consideration in recent days to the Cleveland Cavaliers before talks with Toronto got serious.

How do Bryan Colangelo and the Raptors miss this? Aren’t they paid to understand the salary cap and its rules?

I hesitate to call this a rematch, because it’s just a regular season game and there isn’t much on the line, but this one had a postseason feel to it and was quite chippy, especially in the second half.

The Magic led by 10 heading into the fourth quarter, but the Lakers went on an 8-0 run to start the period and cut the lead to just two. The game was nip and tuck the rest of the way, but the Lakers never took the lead or even tied the game. After hitting a long two on the previous possession to cut the lead to one (and staring defiantly into the crowd), Kobe Bryant missed a game-tying jumper as time expired.

After getting into several scraps with Bryant throughout the second half, Matt Barnes hit a huge three with 1:10 to play to push the lead to six. He and Kobe were pushing and shoving throughout the game, and at one point they were called for a double technical.

I’ve always liked Barnes’ hard-nosed style, though he needs to do a better job of showing poise in certain situations. He’s sort of like Bruce Bowen, but a little crazy. After his first technical, there were a couple of points where the officials would have been totally justified in ejecting him from the game. He repeatedly walked right through Kobe in an effort to show that he’s not going to back down. Kobe went for 34-7-7, but he missed 18 of his 30 shots.

Is this Magic team capable of making another postseason run? I think so, but I’m not a big fan of Vince Carter in crunch time. The Magic will be aided by the fact that Jameer Nelson has stayed healthy thus far — if you remember, he missed most of the playoffs last season and was a little rusty when he came back in the Finals. The Lakers don’t really have an answer for Nelson’s quickness.

Photo from fOTOGLIF

Offseason Movement: The Suns signed Matt Barnes to a one-year contract. Barnes had a nice season for the Warriors two years ago (averaging 9.8 points and 4.6 rebounds), but fell out of favor in Golden State and saw his minutes cut. He’s a decent three-point shooter (37% in ’06-’07) and is otherwise an energy guy with a pretty good handle. The team drafted Robin Lopez, the more defensive-minded of the Lopez twins from Stanford. (You know, Sideshow Bob.) He may be the future at center once Shaq hangs ‘em up.
Keep Your Eye On: Shaquille O’Neal
Shaq’s scoring numbers have been in a freefall since the ’04-’05 season. At that point in his career, he was averaging 22.9 points and 10.4 rebounds. In 28 games with the Suns, he averaged 12.9 points and 10.6 boards. Clearly, Shaq can still rebound when he wants to. He shot 61% from the field with the Suns, but his blocks have slipped from 2.3 four seasons ago to 1.2 last season. If he is committed mentally and physically, there’s no reason that he can’t play 60-70 games at a 15/10 clip. If the Suns can get to the playoffs with everyone healthy, they’ll be a factor. If Shaq is out of shape and the knees start to bother him, the Suns season is pretty much over.
The Big Question: Will trading away Marion ultimately pay off?
GM Steve Kerr took a big risk last season when he traded Shawn Marion to the Heat for Shaq. Two years ago, the Suns were a couple of bench-clearing infractions away from upending the eventual-champion Spurs. The franchise could have kept that group together, but Marion was an offseason headache and Kerr ultimately decided to take a couple of aspirin last year. We’ll never know what would have happened had he kept that group together, but it did seem like the window was closing as the Marion drama affected the team’s chemistry.
Outlook: Cautiously optimistic. If we’re talking about getting to the Finals, the Suns are one of those teams that needs everything to break the right way. The team should benefit from a half-season and a training camp with Shaq, and if he, Steve Nash and Amare Stoudemire can all stay relatively healthy, the team has the juice to go a long way in the West. But Nash is 34 and Shaq is 36, so chances are one will miss significant time, and that can’t overlap with the playoffs. The Suns have spent the last few years giving away most of their draft picks, so they are pretty much “all in” this season. If they don’t make a serious run, Kerr might decide to blow the team up and start over with Stoudemire as his centerpiece.