Barnes Proves His Worth In Win Over Nuggets
Plagued by injuries early on, the Sacramento Kings have leaned on unlikely sources for contributions, including Harrison Barnes.
The Sacramento Kings have had a handful of unlikely heroes contributing to their recent success. Richaun Holmes has stepped up and earned himself a starting spot with his energy and athleticism. Nemanja Bjelica has big games under his belt and has been one of the Kings’ most reliable scoring options.
But it is his consistency and reliability that have made Harrison Barnes one of the Kings’ most important players so far this season.
Barnes has started every game this season and is enjoying the best shooting year of his career with a true shooting percentage of .617. One of the keys to his success is his ability to get to the free-throw line, where he is putting up a career-best 4.4 attempts per game.
Other than his put-back game-winner against the Utah Jazz, Barnes does not have a lot of signature moments. But the Kings have counted on him for big, sometimes momentum-changing baskets throughout the duration of the game.
He had plenty of meaningful buckets in Sacramento’s overtime victory against the Denver Nuggets on Saturday afternoon.
Barnes first big bucket came in the opening minute of the second quarter. The Kings found themselves in a large deficit early in the game, but began to make a push before the Nuggets could pull away. Barnes was cherry picking on a Yogi Ferrell steal and converted an and-1 after rebounding his own miss, bringing the Kings to within five points and keeping them in the game.
In the third quarter, the Kings were chipping away at what was once a 17 point lead for Denver. After cutting the lead to single digits, Sacramento found Barnes who took Paul Milsap into the lane and made a tough lay in while being fouled. The sequence brought the Kings to within 6 points of the Nuggets lead and set them up for their final push in the fourth quarter.
Barnes had a pair of big baskets in the fourth quarter to help the Kings close the gap. The first came on a nice slip play where he took the feed from Holmes for an easy dunk. The second came with just over three minutes to play, when Barnes backed Jamal Murray down and calmly hit a turnaround jumper in traffic.
After hitting the first basket in overtime, Barnes converted on what was arguably the biggest shot of the game. With under a minute left in the extra frame and the Kings clinging to a 96-95 lead, Barnes backed down Will Barton, took a hop step, and banked home an off-balance layup, pushing the Kings lead to three. It would be the last field goal of a game.
Harrison Barnes would finish the game with a season-high 30 points and shot 9 for 10 from the charity stripe. He was the key contributor in the Kings’ unlikely victory over the Denver Nuggets. Much talk is made about the size of the contract that Barnes’ signed during the offseason, but games like this showcase his worht to
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Look for Barnes and Sacramento to continue their solid play against the visiting Chicago Bulls on Monday evening.