Denver Nuggets: 3 takeaways from Game 3 loss vs. Blazers

2. What to do with Will Barton?

Will Barton was nowhere to be found. Until it mattered the most.

All of Barton’s 22 points came after the third quarter. It was his layup on a backdoor cut that tied the game at 102 with 28.6 seconds to play in regulation.

Several of his field goals actually gave Denver the lead late in the second and fourth overtime. His play was erratic, but heck, so was the game itself. Nobody was immune to sloppiness in Game 3.

Prior to Friday, Barton had scored just 13 points on 4-of-14 shooting in the first two games of the series. He isn’t a player that head coach Michael Malone can rely on for consistency. But the shooting guard made some key plays that kept the Nuggets alive, no matter how ugly it looked in the process.

I phrased this takeaway as a question because, honestly, I have no idea what Malone should do with Barton. Do you leave him out there in late-game situations again? Can he replicate late-game surge on Sunday?

Conventional wisdom says no. But the guy has a knack for finding the ball. It’s just a matter of what chooses to do with it.