Nikola Jokic belongs to the most creative players. He's never seen a pass or shot he didn't at least want to attempt, but at the end of the third quarter in Saturday's win over the Los Angeles Lakershe encountered a hard and fast hurdle in the NBA's rule book.
The league adopted the Trent Tucker Rule prior to the 1990–91 season to account for human error in point keeping. From that point on, jump shots at the end of the quarter or at the end of the shot clock were only possible if there were 0.4 or more seconds left on the clock. If an offense passes the ball for a shot with 0.3 or fewer seconds remaining on either clock, legally only a tip or a lob can count.
This posed a problem for them Denver Nuggets on Saturday because they weren't close enough to the basket to get a lob or tip. After one Anthony Davis With a free throw, Denver cut Denver's lead to 94-78. With 0.3 seconds left in the third quarter, the Nuggets only had time for a full-court tap attempt. On the surface, this sounds impossible.
But Jokic, ever the innovator, dared figuratively and literally, swinging the incoming pass the length of the court and getting much closer than anyone ever thought possible to one of the NBA's most incredible buzzer-beating shots. Check out his attempt from about 85 feet from the basket:
There's a lot to dissect here. Obviously, the basketball IQ at this moment is remarkable. Who else even thinks about the Trent Tucker Rule in a full-court situation, especially when it's not a playoff moment? Jokic knew the rule and was willing to try something ridiculous just to comply. Amazingly he managed to get the distance he needed to make the shot realistic, it was just off center. This wasn't even his only volleyball-style shot of the night. He actually scored a goal in the second quarter.
There are no points for spectacular failures, but there can certainly be praise. For any other player in the NBA, a full-court inbound with 0.3 seconds left at the end of the quarter wouldn't even be a viable experimental scenario. The fact that Jokic even managed to try this is incredible, and who knows, maybe one day he'll do one and create one of the greatest buzzer-beating shots in league history.
