The Denver Nuggets came out flat on Thursday night against the lowly Chicago Bulls, finding themselves down by 18 points early on in the game and unable to find any sort of groove on offense. It looked to be another long night in a roller coaster season. That is, until the Thrill checked in.
Immediately Will Barton was able to jump start the sluggish Nuggets back into the game by hitting back-to-back three pointers. Barton finished the first quarter with 11 points, had 22 at the half and ultimately dazzled his way to a new career-high of 37 points. Above all, Barton came through in the clutch for the Nuggets by hitting free throws late in the fourth and scoring the game winning layup in the waning seconds of the game.
Barton’s impact for this team cannot be understated. On nights when the team can’t get it going he always acts as the spark plug off the bench. And when Nikola Jokic went down, Barton was there to keep the Nuggets in the game. When he puts up high scoring games like this one, it’s hard to count him out of the race for sixth man of the year.
