Nuggets guard Will Barton has a picture framed and sitting on the dresser in his bedroom. (You can see a picture of it in this month’s Mile High Sports Magazine.) It’s from his first start in the NBA. In that game, Barton went up for a one-handed dunk and was stuffed at the rim by a then-much younger Kobe Bryant.

Barton will remember that moment forever, as it helped shape the player he is today. It taught him that he needed to me much stronger going to the rim if he was going to finish against NBA talent.

Perhaps Houston’s Donatas Motiejunas had a similar moment on Monday night, courtesy of Barton.

With 7:00 remaining in the second quarter of Denver’s 114-108 win over the Rockets, Barton took a pass in the corner from Mike Miller, head-faked Trevor Ariza and then exploded for one of the year’s top highlights.

Here it is in all its glory…

Barton wasn’t done humiliating Ariza on the night, either.

In the fourth quarter, with Denver rolling, Ariza went to the floor and lost his shoe.

After a dunk by Joffrey Lauvergne, Barton slyly grabbed Ariza’s shoe and tossed it out of play.

The win secured a season sweep of the Rockets, last year’s Western Conference runner-up.

Barton received a technical foul for the shoe-tossing stunt, but got plenty of laughs (and cheers) from the Denver crowd. He scored a team-high 23 points in the win and was one rebound short of a double-double.

More importantly, he gave us reason to resurrect this classic Austin Powers clip…