Down one with 9.6 seconds on the clock, Will Barton received the inbounds pass from Trey Lyles, took four dribbles, surveyed the Chicago Bulls’ defense and saw Justin Holiday leaning to his right.
“He jumped,” Barton said from his locker describing the game’s final sequences. “At first, it was a double-screen going to my left. I was coming at him full speed, and I guess he kind of tried to guess that the screen that was coming. Once I saw him turn his body, I just kept going right.”
Barton skated by Holiday into a wide-open lane and somehow avoided a charging Robin Lopez determined to pin his layup on the glass. He contorted his body sideways, ducked under the rim, absorbed some contact from the 7-footer and miraculously finished with his right hand on the left side of the basket.
It was a shot Barton had rehearsed countless times from the concrete courts within Baltimore’s city limits where the 26-year-old cut his chops as a five-star recruit out of high school, to Denver’s practice gym.
Barton knew he’d make the shot. His biggest critic and maybe skeptic? Player development coach John Becket, who often chides Barton in practice for trying that circus-like layup where he puts a little too much spin on the ball for his liking.
“As soon as I made it, that’s all I was thinking about. Make sure we get the win, and I’m going right to JB. ‘Hey, I told you, man,'” Barton said, detailing the moment he and Beckett shared after the victory.
“You called it,” Beckett said afterwards.
Denzel Valentine was unable to get off a potential game-winning three before the buzzer and the dogpile was on. First to mob Barton at center court was Gary Harris.
“No doubt in my mind,” Harris said when asked if he knew Barton was going to take the last shot. “He had the hot hand.”
Barton’s night wasn’t just about his game-winning lay-in. In the first half, he kept a struggling Nuggets’ offense within reach of the Bulls with 12 first-quarter points. Barton finished the half with 22 and poured in 15 more over the third and fourth quarters. It was a stark contrast to his nine-point night on just 3-7 shooting in Utah just two days ago.
Nuggets coach Michael Malone said he saw a “passive” Barton in Utah. He spoke with Barton Wednesday and delivered a simple message to his sixth-man: play more aggressive, score and make plays.
Besides the career-high 37 points, Barton handed out three assists, recorded three steals and finished a game-high plus-12 in 35 minutes. He shot a clean 13-19 from the field and hit 6-9 from three-point range.
“There’s Will Barton, and there’s ‘Thrill’ Barton,” Malone said. “And tonight we saw ‘Thrill’ Barton, and he was unbelievable. Obviously, we don’t win the game without him.”
“I was telling my teammates during the last couple of possessions, ‘give me the ball and get out of the way,'” Barton said of his game-winner.
Without Nikola Jokic, who exited the game with a sprained left ankle with 44 seconds remaining in the second quarter, Barton stepped up. Jokic had X-rays during halftime and did not return to the game. His status for Saturday’s matchup against the Lakers is up in the air. Without its star big man, Denver’s next-man-up mentality was put to the test.
Barton was there to answer the call, but that’s what he’s done throughout the Nuggets’ first 21 games this season. With tunnel vision that’s activated 24/7, Barton’s continues to wear a number of hats for the Nuggets: sixth-man, starter, and tonight for the second or third time this year, closer.
Barton is a lot quieter than his flashy wardrobe would indicate. He’d rather let his play do the talking.
“I dreamed of those moments since I was young. Having the ball in my hands in crunch time and delivering,” Barton said as he rehashed the game’s final moments. “And I’m just thankful I was able to do that tonight.”
