What Was More Impressive, Nikola Jokic's Full Court Alley Oop Assist Or Luka Doncic's Prayer Game Winner?

Garrett Ellwood. Getty Images.

There are plenty of reasons why it's awesome that NBA basketball is back in our lives again. The games to start the year have been awesome and even though we're only a few days in, we've already been blessed with a handful of ridiculous must watch moments. Every night seems to deliver something more insane than the last, and honestly, last night might have been the best of the bunch.

Of everything we saw on Friday night, two plays stand out the most, which brings us to a nice healthy debate this fine Saturday. 

What was more impressive, Jokic's full court out of bounds assist/alley-oop, or Luka's insane one handed three point game winner?

Both stop you in your tracks when you see them, so let's check the take. Up first we have Jokic

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Am I being a prisoner of the moment if I suggest this is maybe the greatest inbounds pass I've ever seen? I mean, look at where Jokic places this ball for Aaron Gordon! I feel like we've seen look ahead passes like this before, but nothing quite like a perfect alley-oop from that far out. Of course it would come from one of the greatest passers walking this earth, but I don't know how you don't see a play like that and be instantly dumbfounded. Just when you think you've seen Jokic do it all, he pulls off something like this so flawlessly it doesn't even seem fair. There's already so much to worry about when it comes to Jokic, now you have to be worried about full court out of bounds alley oops? Jesus. Shame on the Grizzlies for falling asleep like that, but at the same time they probably figured Jokic would just pass the ball to a guard in the backcourt like every other team does in this spot. Nope. He's going to do something we've never seen before instead. 

Then we have Luka. If we've ever had a Luka Magic performance, last night was it. 49/10/7 with 0 TOs is legitimately insane given how much Luka has the ball. If that wasn't impressive enough, may I present to you how the Mavericks won their game last night

What the hell man. The thing is Luka does shit like this all the time. These prayers aren't really prayers for him. I feel confident that 99.9% of NBA players throw this ball over the backboard. They aren't even close. Luka? There was no doubt in my mind when I saw him start to go into that heave that it was going in. I've seen him make that type of circus shot way too many times before to ever doubt him in that moment. You know how they say players have a "clutch gene"? Luka most definitely does. If he has the ball in the closing moments of a close games, I feel like more often than not he's ripping your heart out with some sort of dagger. Usually, it's his patented stepback three where all you can do is pray, but every once in a while we get a shot like that where all you can do is shake your head and laugh. Some guys are just blessed I guess.

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So which is more impressive? I think as awesome as Jokic's play was, I have to go with a one armed contested heave to win a game. Given the moment and the degree of difficulty of the play, that feels like the right choice. Both are insane, but Luka's is just a slight cut above in my opinion.

Now that we turn the page to another full slate of games today, I can only imagine what we're about to add to the list. Given what we've seen already, something tells me it's probably going to be pretty sweet.