MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The convention-defying acts of Nikola Jokic have grown so routine, so nonchalant, that even both local broadcasts of a game can overlook them.
The Nuggets center lofted arguably one of the greatest assists of his career Friday night in Memphis, but nobody saw it until later.
“That was the whole point,” Jamal Murray told The Denver Post, laughing.
Nobody, including Murray, who was on the Denver bench a few feet from where Jokic inbounded the ball. Nobody, including the Grizzlies, who were arguing an illegal screen foul call at their offensive end. Nobody, including the viewers at home, who were seeing a replay of the foul on Altitude TV or Bally Sports or NBA League Pass.
The foul resulted in a side-out for the Nuggets in their backcourt, next to their own bench. Jokic gestured for the official to give him the ball quickly, then didn’t hesitate before chucking it one-handed and almost recklessly toward the opposite end of the court, where Aaron Gordon was waiting behind all five Grizzlies.
The heave was also directed at the opposite side of the basket. It probably traveled close to 70 feet in the air (unofficially) before Gordon left his feet, caught the pass in mid-air and finished an easy dunk. A three-quarters-court inbound alley-oop.
“When he’s trying to get the ball from the ref, it’s because he sees something before we even see it,” said Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, who was in the game at the time for Denver — standing right next to Jokic, in fact — but distracted by teammate DeAndre Jordan calling him to the bench and “telling me something about the defensive stop we had earlier.”
Caldwell-Pope’s head turned as the ball was in the air. Even Jokic’s own teammates were caught sleeping a tiny bit.
“Just watching the replay, that was a hell of a pass by Jokic and a hell of a catch by AG,” Caldwell-Pope said.
Yet the reaction was muted. Memphis immediately called timeout with 5:39 remaining in the third quarter, and Jokic casually strolled to the bench and sat down, high-fiving teammates. The Altitude broadcast showed one angle of the replay while going to a commercial break, but the NBA released footage from the regular angle online later. Even the camera operator wasn’t ready for the pass; the camera abruptly swings to the right to catch the very end of the play.
“I didn’t want to throw it as a lob,” Jokic admitted to The Post after the game. “I just wanted to throw it for (Gordon) to catch because I saw him wide open.”
WE NEED TO BE MAKING A BIGGER DEAL ABOUT THIS PLAY!!! pic.twitter.com/2grUT1qXGE
— Matt Schubert (@MattDSchubert) October 28, 2023
Jokic is one of the preeminent outlet passers in the game, but he has never practiced an alley-oop lob from that distance, he said: “It’s not something that I’m trying to look for. I can not work out that play.”
So the perfect pass turned out to be a happy accident. Maybe that’s also a commentary on how remarkable Jokic is, even on a shaky night when he turns the ball over nine times.
“It happens,” Murray said. “It’s just a read. If a guy’s not looking, just throw it. It was a great pass. You can trust his passes like that.”
It also turned out to be an important basket. It gave the Nuggets a 76-68 lead at the time in what eventually ended as a tight, 108-104 win.
Even Jokic, who isn’t known for being braggadocious and barely reacted to his own quarterback skills in the moment, had to acknowledge later that it was one of his more special moments.
“It was actually really perfect,” he told The Post. “It was a good pass. It was a really good pass. And they called a timeout right after. I think those points hurt the most.”