Finally fitting in

Rest assured, below the mohawk and underneath all the tattoos, it’s still the same Matt Barnes you remember at UCLA.

Still the slender, versatile forward. Still the prankster. Still at his best when riding shotgun with Baron Davis.

It’s just nothing that he did at UCLA or in his four previous NBA stops during a vagabond career had you ready for this, a major role with the sudden darling of the playoffs.

Not only that, he seems to have taken the rules-free attitude of the Golden State Warriors to heart and followed the reckless leaders. Star player Baron Davis has seven technical fouls in nine playoff games. The guy Davis calls the heart of the team, Stephen Jackson, has been known to throw fists at fans in the seats and fire shots in the air outside a strip club.

And there was Barnes, with 6 1/2 minutes left until they finished off their first-round upset of the Dallas Mavericks, practically cross-checking Dallas’ Maurice Ager off the court and picking up a flagrant foul. It looked like a rite-of-passage initiation. Are things really that edgy with the team?

“Definitely,” Barnes said. “That’s what this team needed to get going. I’ve got people like Jack and BD doing the same thing, so it’s just kind of contagious.”

If it’s contagious, has Barnes caught a case of crazy? Is he losing it?

“No, no, no,” Barnes said. “I’m just excited to be out there. All this hard work is paying off.”

OK, it’s good to know he hasn’t gone over the edge. And it’s even better to see him rewarded for his perseverance on a ride that has taken him from a training camp where he was cut by the Cleveland Cavaliers to a season with the Fayetteville Patriots of the NBA Development League to Seattle SuperSonics training camp to the Long Beach Jam of the ABA to the Clippers to the Sacramento Kings to the Philadelphia 76ers to the New York Knicks.

The Warriors brought him to camp last fall, Golden State Vice President Chris Mullin said, because of “his size, his versatility, and the way we were going to play. It fit both ways.”

Still, Barnes was one of four players without a guaranteed contract in the 18-man camp. But what he did have was his mentor from UCLA, Davis, there to give him support and confidence.

“I told him he could make this team and he could be a huge part of this team because I know who he is,” Davis said. “It’s time for him to stop bouncing around the league and get in a situation where he can stay.”

Barnes has always taken Davis’ words to heart. As a freshman, when he was sulking after not a playing a minute in a road swing to Oregon and Oregon State, it was Davis who provided a pep talk that got Barnes back into the fold.

“He just knows what to say to me to get me going,” Barnes said.

But what made this the most successful stop of Barnes’ NBA career was the shoot-’em-if-you-got-’em system employed by Warriors Coach Don Nelson. Nelson helped pioneer the concept of the “point forward” with Paul Pressey and the Milwaukee Bucks in the 1980s. As a 6-foot-7 player who could handle the ball, Barnes fit the mold.

His average of 9.8 points per game this season more than doubled his previous best. After making 10 of 50 three-pointers in his first three NBA seasons, he made 106 of 290 (37%) this year, when the only bad shots were the ones he didn’t take.

“One game I was 0 for 5 and [Nelson] told me if I stopped shooting he was going to take me out,” Barnes said. “I ended up hitting seven threes that game.”

He had 16 points, 11 rebounds, seven assists and a dunk on Dirk Nowitzki in the close-out game against Dallas, and 20 points and 10 rebounds in the opener against Utah.

Barnes could be in line for this year’s Tyronn Lue award, the rich contract given to the unheralded player with a breakout playoff series or two. He made $771,000 this season and his next deal could be a multi-year contract worth $20 million to $30 million.

Don’t expect that to change him, either.

“He may have added some tattoos and changed the hairstyle, but essentially he’s just a more evolved and developed, complete basketball player,” said Steve Lavin, his coach at UCLA. “He’s still the same person.”

He’s someone who would pick up on his teammates’ and coaches’ idiosyncrasies and do spot-on impressions. (To do Lavin, Barnes said, he would “start spitting out of my mouth.”) Anything can be mined for comedic material. With Golden State, Barnes had fun with Jackson’s firearms charge by pretending to pat him down and check for weapons during the pregame introductions -- until a call to the Warriors from the NBA put a halt to it.

As for the new look, he went with the mohawk after losing a bet, and he has added three tattoos to the collection he sported at UCLA (the most noticeable addition being a pair of clasped hands and the word “Believe” on his neck) because “They’re addicting. You get one, you want to get a couple of more.”

Now he has a taste for playoff basketball, playing in May for the first time in his career. There’s individual glory -- and lots of money -- at stake.

“I’m aware of that, but right now it’s all about winning,” Barnes said. “We have something special here. We can make noise in the second round.”

It will be another earsplitting night at Oracle Arena tonight, when the Warriors try to even the series with the Jazz at two games apiece. Barnes will be in the middle of it, having found a home amid the madness.

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J.A. Adande can be reached at j.a.adande@latimes.com. To read more by Adande, go to latimes.com/adande.