Welcome back to the BAE Index.
Will Barton scores off the jump ball
The Denver Nuggets beat the Indiana Pacers, 129-126, in a crazy game Sunday night. Denver guard Will Barton, a leading candidate for both Most Improved Player and Sixth Man of the Year, led the Nuggets with 21 points off-the-bench. Two of his 21 came off of this jump ball with just 0.6 seconds left on the shot clock (via @Jared_Wade):
Barton 360 layup!
Somehow, the pseudo alley-oop wasn’t even the most spectacular play Barton made in this game. Let’s watch him swoop in around the outstretched arms of Jordan Hill for this absurd 360 layup (via @NBA):
Barton fist bumps a baby
Barton wasn’t done! Following the Nugs’ narrow victory, Will was feeling pretty festive. A baby sitting courtside gave him some dap for his solid game (via @Ananth_Pandian):
Dad gets the assist.
BOBAN STAREDOWN
Boban Marjanovic is quickly becoming a national treasure. The Spurs suddenly have a legitimately (and literally) huge prospect on their hands, and he’s wasted no time in becoming a Friendly Bounce favorite. He yammed all over Jeremy Evans late in last night’s win over the Mavericks, and topped it off with this nice staredown that earned him his second NBA technical foul (via @NBA):
Steph Curry remains ridiculous
The Warriors didn’t play on Sunday, but this video shot prior to Saturday’s game against Detroit surfaced. Wait, Stephen Curry did something insane?! Ya don’t say! (via @JaeAzizi):
Russell Westbrook and Cameron Payne have quite the pregame routine
The Thunder had an easy time in beating the Heat Sunday night by the score of 99-74 down in OKC. It’s safe to say that many Thunder players had fun in this one, though nobody had more fun than Russell Westbrook or Cameron Payne (h/t @anthonyVslater):
Zach LaVine just keeps on dunkin’
The Minnesota Timberwolves have fallen on hard times of late, as they’d won just one of their last 14 games coming into Sunday. Fortunately, they were afforded the opportunity to host a miserable Phoenix team that has apparently already decided to quit on the season. Quite the panacea, indeed! With Sunday’s game already well in hand for the Wolves, the reigning NBA slam dunk champion, Zach LaVine, decided to have a little fun (via @talkhoops):
The king of the lob pic.twitter.com/Be6aSUgARO
— Zach Harper (@talkhoops) January 17, 2016