Nikola Jokic is among the NBA’s most creative players. He’s never seen a pass or shot he’s been unwilling to at least try, but at the end of the third quarter in Saturday’s win against the Los Angeles Lakers, he ran into a hard and fast roadblock within the NBA’s rulebook.
The league adopted the Trent Tucker rule ahead of the 1990-91 season to account for human error in scorekeeping. From that point forward, end-of-quarter or end-of-shot-clock jump shots were only possible with 0.4 or more seconds remaining on the clock. If an offense inbounds the ball for a shot with 0.3 or fewer seconds left on either clock, only a tip in or a lob can legally count.
This posed a problem for the Denver Nuggets on Saturday because they weren’t close enough to the basket to feasibly try for a lob or a tip. After an Anthony Davis free throw cut the Denver lead to 94-78 with 0.3 seconds remaining in the third quarter, the Nuggets only had time for a full-court tip attempt. On the surface, that sounds impossible.
But Jokic, ever the innovator, took a figurative and literal swing at it, swiping the inbound pass the full length of the court and coming much closer to one of the NBA’s most incredible buzzer-beaters than you’d ever think possible. Take a look at his attempt from roughly 85 feet away from the basket:
There’s a lot to dissect here. Obviously, the basketball IQ in this moment is remarkable. Who else even thinks of the Trent Tucker rule in a full-court situation, especially when it’s not an endgame moment? Jokic knew the rule and was willing to try something ridiculous just to abide by it. Amazingly, he managed to get the distance he needed to feasibly make the shot, he was just off-center. This wasn’t even his only volleyball-style tap of the night. In the second quarter, he actually managed to score on this one.
Points aren’t awarded for spectacular misses, but plaudits certainly can be. To any other player in the NBA, a full-court inbound with 0.3 seconds left on an end-of-quarter clock wouldn’t even represent a feasible attempt scenario. That Jokic even managed to try this is incredible, and who knows, he might one day make one and create one of the great buzzer beaters in league history.