I’m really digging this whole “basically no more timeouts at the end of games ever” thing that the NBA has implemented. The end of tonight’s Nuggets-Bulls game was great! Chicago makes a shot to take the lead, then Denver comes right back and makes another shot, and the Bulls have to try and do their best with three seconds left. In the old days, we’d have been sitting around for 20 minutes waiting for that all to play out. Now, there’s excitement!
Will Barton was, if you couldn’t tell by the vid title, the hero for the Nuggets, taking it up straight up the court and into the bucket with little time left on the clock and no timeouts. The Bulls’ defense was so garbage (especially Justin Holiday), actually, that I’m wondering if this wasn’t part of the tank. He just went in there and scored it. Lopez kind of tried to stop him at the end, but what was he going to do?
Barton, aside from the game-winner, had 35 other points of varying styles. Without Jokic for a part of this game due to exploding ankles, he had to step up, and he did. The fact that the Nuggets let the Bulls take them all the way to the end is concerning, but I will chalk it up to the fact that they were forced to play Trey Lyles for over 20 minutes of real-life game time. That’s the kind of thing that just tanks a team.