LOS ANGELES — He trudged to the bench for the second straight game, Bronny James’ frustration evident in the stone of his face and the sagging of his shoulders, pulled without hesitation at the first sign of a mistake.
He’d swiped down on a drive by Utah guard Deivon Smith late in the first half, the smack echoing across a mild Galen Center, running across the court in disagreement with a foul call. Coach Andy Enfield barked and waved him over, not bothering to plead a fruitless case to the referee, instead sending him to the bench. James had played all of seven minutes in this first half; he’d subbed in just a minute and a half earlier.
It has been a strange and tumultuous season for James, forced to start his college basketball career in recovery from a health scare, bouncing from a minutes restriction to USC’s starting point guard to a quasi-sixth man role. Every step forward has been met with a progressive step back, often prompted by an Enfield hook. He passes up approximately five open shots per game and occasionally fouls too often when he favors his hands on defense. Last Saturday, against Stanford, he committed a foul in the second half, and Enfield sent Kobe Johnson to the scorer’s table. James pointed at Johnson – for me? – and his gait drooped walking off the floor, tugging a towel over his face on the bench.
“He made a couple defensive mistakes in the first half,” Enfield said after a 68-64 victory over Utah on Thursday. “In the second half, he learned from that, we talked to him at halftime, and in the second half he was terrific.”
He was. When James is fully engaged and moving his feet, there are few better perimeter defenders in the Pac-12. After entering a few minutes into the second half against Utah, he filled in the gaps beautifully, the kind of off-the-bench scrappiness that would make him a simple fan favorite if not for the weight of expectations on his last name.
Amid one late push, he face-guarded Utah senior…
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