Social media goes wild for crazy Nikola Jokic play against Lakers

The Nuggets got a huge win on Saturday night in Los Angeles, defeating the Lakers 127-102. It was impressive to see the team rally on the second night of a back-to-back after a tough home loss on Friday night to the Mavericks.

But Denver seemed to have plenty of energy as they overcame a halftime deficit to pull away behind a monster second-half effort. The Nuggets did an excellent job on defense, containing and mostly neutralizing the Lakers’ stars; LeBron James had 18 points and Anthony Davis had just 14.

But the story of the game, as is often the case, was the brilliance of Nikola Jokic. In his second game back from a three-game absence for the birth of his son, Jokic put up 34 points, 13 rebounds, 8 assists, 2 steals, and a block, shooting 3/7 from three-point range. Jokic was also a ridiculous team-high +39 on the night.

End of quarter Jokic trick shot wows fans

And yet, it wasn’t the big stat line or the victory over the Lakers that had fans and social media buzzing on a Saturday night. It was a play that resulted in a missed shot and won’t show up in any box score or stat sheet.

At the end of the third quarter, Anthony Davis hit a free throw with 0.3 seconds left; a seemingly innocuous ending to a great quarter for the Nuggets. But Jokic had other ideas. Knowing that there was not enough time for him to catch the ball and shoot it, he called for a pass to be towards his right hand as he stood near his own basket.

Except instead of catching the pass, Jokic swung his arm and pushed it the length of the floor, sailing it just wide of the hoop. For Jokic to think in that moment of a way to tap the ball, so as to get the attempt off in time, and be able to smash it, almost like a volleyball, and land it that close to the hoop from 90 feet away, is almost beyond comprehension.

Fans and social media agreed, as the play quickly went viral and had people reacting to the genius move in a hilarious multitude of approving and affectionate ways. The play will ultimately just go down as a missed three-pointer, and it will be forgotten about before long. But it was nice to see the moment getting its proper attention in real-time.