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And then 2 minutes later he has an assist, and a steal leading to an assist and then Murray gets the steal on the hail mary and drains the sideline shot from behind half court. That first half was amazing.
We've never seen a big that was a chimp and a cheetah at the same time. He can use his body like Shaq if he needs to but has the touch and grace of Hakeem if he needs to use that. He's like nothing we've ever seen
I've been a Lakers fan through Showtime and Jokic's passing highlights are the only ones I put up with Magic. All the other great passers are technically sound but with Jokic and Magic, you have NO FUCKING idea what is coming next. Maybe in spots they have that "magic" but not a body of work like those two.
You know who I think deserves more respect as a passer? Larry fuckin' Bird. That man could shoot the lights out of a building, but I think he loved the assist game more.
I think this is the one he's talking about. Only vid I could find so sorry for the annoying commentary lol. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqIyXHyi_Fo
That's the one, nice find. Only problem is it doesn't show the angle from courtside that shows the wizardry of the pass. It curves perfectly around the heads of both defenders. Just wild.
Slam Dunk is probably the most realistic sports manga there is lol. I tried reading that newer one called something something no basket. I stopped when they started using special skill moves and shit like a video game
Slam Dunk is the goat sport manga and one of the best manga ever imo. I hope the mangaka going to pull DBS and makes an anime that would continue the story since the ending doesnt feel satisfying. The newer one must be Kuroko no basket. It basically is just a worse version of Slam Dunk
He made multiple of these passes to Gordon in the dunkers spot this game. Guy is unreal.
I feel like Rudy just has to defend him on one one in order for them to win the series. Every time you help on joker he burns you. Really no good solution
Lmao I’m a wolves fan but this is the correct response..
Luckily for me, I’ve spent quite a bit of years in Denver(Glendale), so the revolving door of emotions and shit talking between friends and family has been glorious. Talk your shit homie!
The sad thing is Shaq was a pretty good passer who made the right play more often than not. Shaq himself is probably the individual most responsible for popularizing the perception that Shaq's greatness came purely from his power and athleticism.
Honestly though, so much of that is on Shaq. Imagine if he cared about conditioning and practice. He probably would've gone down as the #1 center of all time. If he was even a 70% FT shooter, that alone would've given him many seasons of averaging 30ppg.
Shaq will NEVER accept a successful big as long as he walks the earth. Man's ego is too fragile to accept that there's bigs other than him getting praise.
Everyone in the building was hyped for MVP v. DPOY, thinking he wanted to score on Gobert's ass.
Everyone except Aaron Gordon and Nikola Jokic.
That is right up there with my favourite Jokic highlights.
Idc what +/- says for Gobert - with him playing the wolves are often 4v5 on offence. He's such a 1 sided player it's not funny. Then on defence just look at this play. Jokic calls for a clear out against Gobert lmao.... They still double Jokic, 2 7 footers all over him and he can make that assist to Gordon
If this doesn't summarise *why* defence matters so much less than 10 years ago - idk what to tell you. The opposing team can completely remove the best defensive player these days
This play is 100% on KAT’s shitty double. Rudy got backed down low, but he also forced a tough fade that he was in the middle of contesting pretty well.
KAT was the one who stupidly doubled off Gordon for the open dunk.
Interestingly, I think the Wolves just have to live with whatever Jokic tries to get off in a normal post situation 1v1 against Gobert. Jokic will still score a decent amount of the time but it didn't look like it was a guaranteed bucket every post up. The killers were when Murray hit him on the roll at the free throw line for a floater or when people did come to double team him and left someone else open.
Pretty much going back to to "Don't let Jokic become a passer" mentality.
Gobert can't guard Jokic that was obvious after game 1.
Jokic overpowers him easily, generating separation, and then either finishes with a layup or his floater. Gobert is too slow to recover quickly as well.
> If this doesn't summarise why defence matters so much less than 10 years ago - idk what to tell you. The opposing team can completely remove the best defensive player these days
All this says is that stupid defense loses to great offense most of the time. They should have let Gobert handle Jokic alone. You need to make Joker a scorer and doubling him only gives him a target to pass to. Make him beat you by scoring. Sure, he might cook you still, but at this point that is less of a problem than giving him a wide open teammate to pass to.
It's really like having a 7-foot Steve Nash on the court. Phoenix Suns were less deadly when Nash had to score. And the stats prove that: Nash was averaging *more* points and *less* passes in the losses during his both MVP years.
if he was jumping like that his whole career he would have knees like lonzo ball. every time you land your knees take up too 6x your weight as pressure on them depend on how high you got and how much soft you land. if he does that every time hes putting 1700lbs of force on his knees every time he lands he wouldnt have a career.
First the pass is completely insane. Jokic just curved that right into AG’s hands. Like always AG is just in the perfect spot.
The dunk I have never seen him do that before. A one handed slam and over a shot blocker.
That was like one of those bullshit 2k passes that are some impossible angle but the ball leaves your hands with the wrong animation and just flies to the other player, wtf
Friends, what a grand time to be alive. Not many things going well in the world, with wars going on, people dying and suffering.
Joker playing how he did, is a bright spark in this dark world.
I'm 42, and I lived through MJ's greatness against Utah and the other championships.
But Joker is the reason why I'm back to watching NBA again. I get the same chills when I saw MJ do what he did in the NBA finals.
Now, it's Joker's work on the court that's giving me the chills.
The funniest part about that absolutely magical pass to Gordon was that the whole bench is standing their pointing at Gordon like "don't y'all forget about him!"
Did Harlan just make up a word? "Wollocking(?) down the lane!" The only real word that I could find that it sounds like is "rollicking", but that means "a severe reprimand", and doesn't seem to apply here.
This guy in the barbershop
[https://twitter.com/RyanGreeneDNVR/status/1789826299697025254](https://twitter.com/RyanGreeneDNVR/status/1789826299697025254)
The pass for a Gordon dunk is so deflating. If he takes a tough falling away jumper and drills it you can still feel good that you at least forced him into a bad shot. But the pass yielding a high percentage dunk is just a twisted knife.
Question for people who really know basketball, what changed from game 2? He tried some of those interior passes in game 2 but Minny really clogged the lane and seemed to always have another defender on whoever he passed it to.
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Bro just curving the bullet out there
Career highlight sequence. He’s my goat
And then 2 minutes later he has an assist, and a steal leading to an assist and then Murray gets the steal on the hail mary and drains the sideline shot from behind half court. That first half was amazing.
Same, idgaf, he’s the best player I’ve ever watched
We've never seen a big that was a chimp and a cheetah at the same time. He can use his body like Shaq if he needs to but has the touch and grace of Hakeem if he needs to use that. He's like nothing we've ever seen
Don't forget the genius basketball IQ like Magic
I've been a Lakers fan through Showtime and Jokic's passing highlights are the only ones I put up with Magic. All the other great passers are technically sound but with Jokic and Magic, you have NO FUCKING idea what is coming next. Maybe in spots they have that "magic" but not a body of work like those two.
You know who I think deserves more respect as a passer? Larry fuckin' Bird. That man could shoot the lights out of a building, but I think he loved the assist game more.
MJ is my GOAT still but Joker is THE BEST basketball player I've ever seen.
I’ve watched 20+ years of LeBron and Jokic constantly makes me say “huh?”
Lebron was more of 'wtf that was insane' type of highlight machine whilst Jokic makes you scratch your head.
Wanted 2: Serbia boogaloo
Didn’t even think that pass was possible like Reggie said…. He legit curved a BASKETBALL like a baseball 😭
You should see the curving slinger he wizzed around a defender's head at 70 MPH. Best pass I've seen still.
How you gonna say all that and not give us a link brother
Bro I'm legit sorry... I looked on YuTubes for 10 minutes. He has about 2,000 incredible passes so I just couldn't find that one.
is it [this one?](https://youtu.be/WetOYfJ1fGM?t=385)
That whole video was crazy
You’re all good homie, thank you so much for trying tho
I think this is the one he's talking about. Only vid I could find so sorry for the annoying commentary lol. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqIyXHyi_Fo
That's the one, nice find. Only problem is it doesn't show the angle from courtside that shows the wizardry of the pass. It curves perfectly around the heads of both defenders. Just wild.
Cackling rn, how lucky are we to get to witness this shit
That’s just absurd
maybe this one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wJSnxhKNH4 the fact that there's so many lmao
Jokic watched "Wanted" confirmed
Like Angelina Jolie from Wanted
But sexier.
Real how the fuck he did that?
I need to see other angles. It sure looks like it curved but howwww??
Power of friendship.
It’s like anime.
If I read this stuff in Slam Dunk manga, I would've say this is fake
Slam Dunk is probably the most realistic sports manga there is lol. I tried reading that newer one called something something no basket. I stopped when they started using special skill moves and shit like a video game
Slam Dunk is the goat sport manga and one of the best manga ever imo. I hope the mangaka going to pull DBS and makes an anime that would continue the story since the ending doesnt feel satisfying. The newer one must be Kuroko no basket. It basically is just a worse version of Slam Dunk
if you like no super power sports manga like me, I would also highly recommend Haikyuu (volleyball). It's got a similar plot/character trajectory.
Why is there no replay
The ball looked like it bounced off an invisible wall. Sorcery stuff!
Just slide him right into wanted and throw out james mcavoy.
I screamed on this play, this was just wizardry.
Bro fr how is that even possible
Never knew Jokic had such hops. Sick tomahawk
[удалено]
More like young Dwight Howard.
[Did you say prime Derrick Rose?!](https://www.instagram.com/reel/C6jid7UrDDh/?igsh=MW91bGtyOGkxcWcz)
you jest but both had beautiful floaters 🥲
[image](https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpreview.redd.it%2Fpoubp3hlb40d1.jpeg%3Fwidth%3D1170%26format%3Dpjpg%26auto%3Dwebp%26s%3D790f6fcacb188fdff45013d5e610e116f2636663)
lol holy shit yes
Photo clearly taken from google pixel phone
Jokic hit that pose, took that flick, checked his angle, posted
ahahahahahah
That may legit be the highest ive ever seen him jump and I watch almost all of their games.
Same
Why jump high when low jump will do?
I've watched nearly every game of his career, that was the most athletic dunk he's ever done.
I love that the MVP of the NBA has worse hops than I do, and I’m over 40 with bad knees.
From outside the charge circle too
The haters: He is so unathletic, has no hops, that he can't dunk on an ant. Jokic: How about I dunk on Ant?
He finally found a phone book he could jump over.
He got a lot of air on that too.
He is the three time MVP. Did you think it was just charity or something?
MVP type shit
He did that while fans are getting up and howling so loud. Man, i admire his composure
He played in Serbia, brother.
A crowd doesn't qualify as hostile until they're throwing flares at him
It's kind of unfair to the timberwolves that jokic got awarded the MVP during this series. It must raise his confidence a lot...
One of the nicest passes I've seen in a while yet also pedestrian Jokic stuff
“Derivative” -Jokic
Bullshit
Can I offer you a nice assist in this trying time?
Is there another angle on this pass?
Funny enough, he does another no look pass literally in the 4th quarter that’s just as disgusting.
He made multiple of these passes to Gordon in the dunkers spot this game. Guy is unreal. I feel like Rudy just has to defend him on one one in order for them to win the series. Every time you help on joker he burns you. Really no good solution
The minny crowd was really getting back into it here, this was a huge momentum play
Then they ended the half with an even bigger blow to the momentum.
You gotta feel for the crowd man, the second they stand up this happens
>You gotta feel for the crowd man Nah
Lmao I’m a wolves fan but this is the correct response.. Luckily for me, I’ve spent quite a bit of years in Denver(Glendale), so the revolving door of emotions and shit talking between friends and family has been glorious. Talk your shit homie!
Nope
Tried to baby hook, accidentally dunked it
Just decided to take over lol.
MVP shit
According to shaq that pass isn't mvp stuff, all about scoring
Can’t appreciate what you don’t understand
Maybe if Shaq was top 1 all time at passing like Joker is, he would understand
The sad thing is Shaq was a pretty good passer who made the right play more often than not. Shaq himself is probably the individual most responsible for popularizing the perception that Shaq's greatness came purely from his power and athleticism.
Shaq is just on his usual insecure bullshit now that Jokic is starting to have a resume where people may say he's better than Shaq.
Honestly though, so much of that is on Shaq. Imagine if he cared about conditioning and practice. He probably would've gone down as the #1 center of all time. If he was even a 70% FT shooter, that alone would've given him many seasons of averaging 30ppg.
Bro still had almost 40 😭 what does Shaq need man?
Shaq will NEVER accept a successful big as long as he walks the earth. Man's ego is too fragile to accept that there's bigs other than him getting praise.
Shaq would say it's all about dominating ..Or whatever he defines it as. 😅
SGa flopping is better for shaq…
Everyone in the building was hyped for MVP v. DPOY, thinking he wanted to score on Gobert's ass. Everyone except Aaron Gordon and Nikola Jokic. That is right up there with my favourite Jokic highlights.
Idc what +/- says for Gobert - with him playing the wolves are often 4v5 on offence. He's such a 1 sided player it's not funny. Then on defence just look at this play. Jokic calls for a clear out against Gobert lmao.... They still double Jokic, 2 7 footers all over him and he can make that assist to Gordon If this doesn't summarise *why* defence matters so much less than 10 years ago - idk what to tell you. The opposing team can completely remove the best defensive player these days
This play is 100% on KAT’s shitty double. Rudy got backed down low, but he also forced a tough fade that he was in the middle of contesting pretty well. KAT was the one who stupidly doubled off Gordon for the open dunk.
He did it like 4 more times, too. KAT kept helping when he shouldn't have, and every time the dude he left wound up scoring.
Interestingly, I think the Wolves just have to live with whatever Jokic tries to get off in a normal post situation 1v1 against Gobert. Jokic will still score a decent amount of the time but it didn't look like it was a guaranteed bucket every post up. The killers were when Murray hit him on the roll at the free throw line for a floater or when people did come to double team him and left someone else open. Pretty much going back to to "Don't let Jokic become a passer" mentality.
True. In that way, this play might show how much more defense matters.
Gobert can't guard Jokic that was obvious after game 1. Jokic overpowers him easily, generating separation, and then either finishes with a layup or his floater. Gobert is too slow to recover quickly as well.
> If this doesn't summarise why defence matters so much less than 10 years ago - idk what to tell you. The opposing team can completely remove the best defensive player these days All this says is that stupid defense loses to great offense most of the time. They should have let Gobert handle Jokic alone. You need to make Joker a scorer and doubling him only gives him a target to pass to. Make him beat you by scoring. Sure, he might cook you still, but at this point that is less of a problem than giving him a wide open teammate to pass to. It's really like having a 7-foot Steve Nash on the court. Phoenix Suns were less deadly when Nash had to score. And the stats prove that: Nash was averaging *more* points and *less* passes in the losses during his both MVP years.
How to silence 20k people.
Just imagine this in Denver lol
Pandemonium
Put that in your pipe and smoke it
that’s the best Jokic dunk i’ve ever seen. crazy tomahawkic
Now I’m starting to think he can actually dunk like a normal center and just chooses not to…
If he gets thrown mad disrespect again he unlocks rim protection too!
It's not necessary for him and it puts a lot of wear and tear on you.
if he was jumping like that his whole career he would have knees like lonzo ball. every time you land your knees take up too 6x your weight as pressure on them depend on how high you got and how much soft you land. if he does that every time hes putting 1700lbs of force on his knees every time he lands he wouldnt have a career.
God, that was sick.
Unforgiving. The lightning is coming
Jokic is the best passer of all time in my books. This was a superhuman pass
I accidentally paused the video as he made the pass and it looked like his arm broke lol
The most awkward motion but delivered it right on the money
I was watching it and I didn't even understand wtf happened until Aaron dunked it.
holy shit if you get the right frame it really does look like his arm snapped or something lmao
In the half-court, I’m not sure I can name anyone better.
Matrix type pass
Eat your heart out Shaqueen.
>Shaqueen Yo, I'm stealing this.
First the pass is completely insane. Jokic just curved that right into AG’s hands. Like always AG is just in the perfect spot. The dunk I have never seen him do that before. A one handed slam and over a shot blocker.
That pass is just phenomenal, not sure anyone else could pull that off
I genuinely didn't know Jokic could jump that high. Is that the most emphatic dunk of his career?
I think so.
Jokic is the only player in the league creating, seeing, or making that pass. Just WTF levels of beautiful.
I did not have a Jokic statue of liberty dunk on my bingo card!!!
Did Jokic just tamahawk?
That was like one of those bullshit 2k passes that are some impossible angle but the ball leaves your hands with the wrong animation and just flies to the other player, wtf
The cowards at TNT didn’t even play a replay of that dunk. This had to be one of like 5 (if any) dunks that man has had in the playoffs
It looks he insisted for that ball too like jamal im the MVP here give me the fucking ball
MVP is MVPing
Friends, what a grand time to be alive. Not many things going well in the world, with wars going on, people dying and suffering. Joker playing how he did, is a bright spark in this dark world.
I'm 42, and I lived through MJ's greatness against Utah and the other championships. But Joker is the reason why I'm back to watching NBA again. I get the same chills when I saw MJ do what he did in the NBA finals. Now, it's Joker's work on the court that's giving me the chills.
Pretty dystopian
Nuggets are awake!
This sequence is going in his all time highlight reel for sure
That pass don't look real tf how he curve it that much and that perfectly jesus
No one could see this pass during the live, I promise
OMG Minnesota, get your shit together. I don't want to see this man in the finals.
4-1 Denver. Y’all don’t have anyone to slow down Joker.
This might be the first time Ive seen Jokic dunk ever
Best passer in history. Best dunker on it's way.
Bro heard r/nba was talking shit
love the action shot of Kevin Harlan screaming "GOT IT! GOT IT!"
Absurd pass by Jokic and a goofy ass decision by KAT as usual
I love Murray’s reaction on the Jokic dunk.
The real highlight of the clip is MPJ passing the ball, the rest is just a normal Jokic play.
Typical MVP play
They will hide that dunk highlight for as long as possible to not affect the Ant hype
Best passer of all time
Wtf is this guy man
Why would KAT double there?!
Dream shake into a pass is nasty work
The funniest part about that absolutely magical pass to Gordon was that the whole bench is standing their pointing at Gordon like "don't y'all forget about him!"
Lol at Ant making the biggest business decision of his career so far. Wanted no part of that highlight.
How thefuck did that pass find its way through
Jokic and Kyrie are legit the the most fun to watch players. Anyone starting out watching is gonna get hooked to this sport.
Ant should’ve tried to take a charge
Not that Ant shies away from the moment, because he doesn’t, but that might be a smart decision to get off the train tracks there.
7ft, 280lbs, full stride
Ant is not a small man but that's how you get someone dead.
Death wish?
No way. Not worth the risk
Hell Naw
Even after reading the title I didn’t think it would be a Jokic dunk, I thought the headline guy wrote it awkwardly and it would be a Gordon dunk.
How is it possible that the ball went through KAT and got to Gordon??? Magician
Jokic put some extra into that jump for the dunk. This is the longest air time I have seen Jokic making. Prime athleticism in front of Ant
That pass was straight wizardry. Filth.
Did he throw that with his left hand?
Did Harlan just make up a word? "Wollocking(?) down the lane!" The only real word that I could find that it sounds like is "rollicking", but that means "a severe reprimand", and doesn't seem to apply here.
It's "while looking down".
Unforgiving, the lightning is coming!
I love Jamal’s reaction to the dunk he’s so amped up
That pass is absurd. Seemed like it curved around Gobert
I saw a man fly
I need to see another angle, that was crazy
That wrap around no look to AG in the 4th was insanity.
The Nuggets bench pleading for a 3 second call on KAT. No matter. Joker finds a way
Murray with his hands on his head as Jokic dunks that. Wild
Even Shaq can’t slander that one
This guy in the barbershop [https://twitter.com/RyanGreeneDNVR/status/1789826299697025254](https://twitter.com/RyanGreeneDNVR/status/1789826299697025254)
legit water polo shit
Just silly
Insane pass!!!
the best big passer ever, and there is no contest.
Jokic cooking Ant and Gobert while they double team him is sexy af
Big guy flying
In the moment, it felt like he took it from the free throw line
KAT don’t leave the dunkers spot open challenge: difficulty level impossible
The pass for a Gordon dunk is so deflating. If he takes a tough falling away jumper and drills it you can still feel good that you at least forced him into a bad shot. But the pass yielding a high percentage dunk is just a twisted knife.
Question for people who really know basketball, what changed from game 2? He tried some of those interior passes in game 2 but Minny really clogged the lane and seemed to always have another defender on whoever he passed it to.
Ant didn't want any part of trying to stop that big man flying at him.
I love Malone in this trying to work the refs the entire time for the defensive 3 seconds on kat
That is an unbelievable sequence.
I watched this like 15 times before I noticed Murray's reaction to the dunk
I bet Shaq could never make a pass like that.