Mavs’ Kyrie Irving sinks SENSATIONAL one-handed buzzer beater to hold off Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets as Dallas rookie admits ‘when we see him get the ball, we sit back and watch’

Kyrie Irving sank the defending champion Denver Nuggets with a sensational one-handed floater that NBA reporter Kevin O’Connor called “one of the biggest game winners you’ll ever see.”

The Dallas star hit a running left-handed shot off Nikola Jokic at the buzzer, capping a wild final 26 seconds and giving the Mavericks a 107-105 victory over the Denver Nuggets on Sunday.

The Nuggets rallied from 13 points behind midway through the fourth quarter and went ahead on Jamal Murray’s tiebreaking 3-pointer with 26 seconds left.

Luka Doncic answered the inbound pass almost immediately after a timeout, hitting from several feet behind the arc for a 105-105 tie.

After Murray missed an elbow jumper, Dallas called a timeout with 2.8 seconds left. The right-handed Irving took the inbounds pass, dribbled with his left hand as Jokic gave chase and surrendered the shot from 20 feet to beat the buzzer.

Dallas Mavericks guard Kyrie Irving (11) shoots the winning basket in the last second against Denver

“Sometimes I only spend an hour at a time working on left-handed stuff,” the 6-foot-2 Irving said. “As a small guard you just have to have a multitude of finishes. And that is something I have been working on since I was a child.’

“Kyrie is where we trust,” said rookie center Dereck Lively II, who had 14 points. “Every time we see him get the ball, we just sit back and watch it happen.”

After the shot went in, Irving ran toward his teammates coming off the bench and was mobbed at midcourt as Jokic and company quietly walked by on their way to Denver’s locker room.

“I wasn’t going to jump the pile,” Dallas coach Jason Kidd said. ‘Thought about it. But if I knew my luck, I would have missed and ended up on the ground. I thought I’d just stand there and celebrate with those guys. Very nice. It should be fun.’

Several fans noted that it was difficult for Irving to attempt a left-handed floater from that distance with Jokic defending him.

“This might be the highest difficulty I’ve ever seen on any level,” one fan wrote.

Irving (11) reacts while teammate Tim Hardaway Jr. runs up after the winning shot

Irving (11) celebrates with teammates after the win against the Denver Nuggets in Dallas

Doncic scored 37 points and Irving had 24 as the up-and-down Mavericks (39-29) defeated the defending champions for their fifth win in six games, answering a 1-5 mark that followed a seven-game winning streak games, Dallas’ longest of the season.

The Mavs tied with Phoenix as part of a virtual three-way tie with Sacramento for the sixth and final guaranteed playoff spot in the Western Conference.

The Nuggets had a five-game winning streak stopped. All five had won by double figures, a first in franchise history. Denver is the only team this season with two road streaks of at least five wins.

Denver (47-21) fell a half-game behind Oklahoma City for the West’s best record while falling to 11-2 since the All-Star break. The other loss came in overtime after Phoenix’s Kevin Durant hit the tying goal with 26 seconds left in regulation.

“I saw Kyrie Irving make a running, left-handed hook from the elbow,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said when asked what he saw on the final sequence. “We’ve been on both sides.”

Murray scored 23 points as the Mavs frustrated Jokic in a 6-of-16 shooting day. Jokic had 16 points and 11 rebounds, and he was annoyed about no-calls as the Mavs made a lot of contact in the first half.

Luka Doncic (right) and Kyrie Irving (left) celebrate after the latter’s winning shot

So did Malone, who eventually called a timeout and walked across the field to complain and was called a technical foul. He almost got a second, just before guard Reggie Jackson was called for it as well.

Irving and Doncic combined for consecutive three seconds to give Dallas a nine-point lead with eight minutes remaining, and the margin reached 13 before the Nuggets began to claw back.

Michael Porter Jr., who had 12 of his 20 points in the first quarter, started the rally with a 3-pointer. Jokic even pulled the Nuggets to 102-102 with a bucket in with 1:05 to go.

PJ Washington Jr. had 11 rebounds, his most for Dallas since coming in a trade with Charlotte last month. The Mavs defeated Denver 59-37. Dallas had a season-high 21 offensive boards and a 23-6 edge in second-chance points.

“I can’t remember the last time we had a rebound on 22,” Malone said.