Nikola Jokic hits historic heave in record night as Nuggets beat Kings

DENVER — Nineteen thousand six hundred seventy-six fans were at Ball Arena on Thursday night, but 50,000 Denverites will probably walk into work Friday claiming they were there because of Nikola Jokic’s latest legendary night.

In the Denver Nuggets 132-123 win over the red-hot Sacramento Kings, the three-time NBA MVP scored 35 points, snagged 22 rebounds and threw 17 assists—the first player since the league merged with the ABA in 1976 to reach all three of those single-game marks throughout an entire season, let alone accomplish it in one game. This means that no player in the modern NBA who has achieved any of those statistics as a season-high reached those heights for the other two categories as well in that same season. Basically, Jokic had the best night of scoring, rebounding and passing that most greats hope to have at any point in a year—and the big man did it all in a few hours.

What we saw was inarguably one of the greatest basketball players ever reach a new peak. Where Jokic ranks among the NBA legends will be adjudicated at a later date. If this will be his best game ever is hard to say, but if his peaks are the Rocky Mountains, this was another 14er.

Jokic found a new way to scale his incredibly high summits, highlighting his night by cashing what the NBA lists as a 66-foot shot—the longest of his career. Upon review, it appears closer to 73 feet, which would rank as the seventh-longest bucket in NBA history.

“Historical,” head coach Michael Malone said after the victory. “And he continues to put up stat lines that no one has. You think about his 10 years here, you think about the three MVPs. You think about the championship, the Finals MVP, and this is the best season he’s ever had, and that’s saying a lot. So just continued greatness… just another historical performance by a great player.”

Jokic hit 12-of-his-19 shots, including that heave—which Basketball Reference says was the first of the 38 he’s taken from beyond halfcourt in his career that cashed. But, remarkably, he’s even shooting these shots. Wikipedia says only 25% of NBA quarters even end with a guy attempting a heave. Most players will not shoot in order to save their percentage. Then there’s Jokic, who is currently tied atop the league with Luke Kennard at 47.9 shooting from deep. Yet Jokic leads the league in heaves taken. Both Kennard and third-best three-point shooter Domantas Sabonis haven’t taken a single heave this year. Heck the NBA as a whole came into the evening with five makes from beyond halfcourt.

Why take them? Simple, it’s three points if it goes in—which can help a team win and as Malone said, “These numbers are translated into wins. These are not empty stats. These are not hollow numbers.”

While the Nuggets (28-16) were on pace to dethrone the Kings, up by 25 when Jokic hit that shot—the lead dwindled to just five with less than a minute left when Sacramento started intentionally fouling. The Nuggets’ eighth consecutive win with Big Honey in the lineup might have been in jeopardy if he hadn’t attempted and made a shot most players wouldn’t even try.

“I took it to make it, it’s not a high-percentage shot,” a more humble Jokic said of his thoughts on heaves in a news conference after telling the fans on the court after the game that he knew it was going in. “But maybe they’ll go in, three points can help us.”

The shot heard around the Mile High City finished off Jokic’s third quarter, in which he already had a triple-double before the final period started. It’s his fifth game in a row where he tallied the feat before the fourth quarter began. He’s the first player since 1996-97 to have at least five straight games of getting a triple-double before the fourth quarter and incredibly 14 of his league-leading 20 triple-doubles have occurred in three quarters this season. His current play has made him the lone player in NBA history to lead his team to an 8-0 record while scoring at least 200 points, snatching 100 rebounds, tossing 75 assists and snagging 20 steals over any eight-game stretch.

“I think this is the best basketball of my life. I’m feeling good out there, I’m in shape. The ball is going in, and I think I can influence the game on different levels,”  Nikola Jokic said. “I think I’m playing really good right now.”

Nikola Jokic’s highlights against the Kings

NIKOLA JOKIĆ'S 5TH STRAIGHT TRIPLE-DOUBLE IS A HISTORIC ONE 🤯

🃏 35 PTS | 22 REB | 17 AST 🃏

He joins Wilt Chamberlain as the only players in NBA history to record a game with 35+ PTS, 20+ REB, & 15+ AST! pic.twitter.com/n1qRSKvdar

— NBA (@NBA) January 24, 2025