When the Denver Nuggets ruled out center Nikola Jokić with lower back pain for Monday night’s game on the road against the LA Clippers, it left the defending NBA champions without three of their primary starters. Power forward Aaron Gordon (right heel strain) and point guard Jamal Murray (right hamstring strain) had previously been deemed injured. Neither even made the trip to Los Angeles.
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That put the focus on Reggie Jackson, the former Clippers starting point guard who was set to be recognized for his time in LA across four NBA seasons, including a memorable playoff run in 2021. Jackson got his tribute video, then provided the kind of game that makes you wonder if he wanted a longer one.
Reggie Jackson tribute pic.twitter.com/qzKB5BNGIl
— Law Murray 🧾 (@LawMurrayTheNU) November 28, 2023
Jackson, who was dealt to the Charlotte Hornets at last year’s trade deadline with cash and a 2028 second-round pick in exchange for center Mason Plumlee and bought out of the last year of his contract before signing with his home-state Nuggets, led all scorers and passers with 35 points and 13 assists to lead the short-handed, rest-disadvantaged Nuggets to a 113-104 win.
“Definitely one of the sweeter ones,” Jackson said in the Denver locker room after Monday night’s game. “We had our main guys out, and I think it was really great for our team. Resilient group, the way we came together.”
Jackson made 15 of 19 shots from the field against the Clippers, who had entered Monday’s contest playing the best defense in the NBA over a stretch in which they had won four out of five games. In the fourth quarter alone, Jackson made more baskets (5-of-7 field goals) than the entire Clippers team (4-of-17 field goals), and had more assists (five, with no turnovers) than the entire Clippers team (two, with five turnovers).
It was one of the best games of Jackson’s career. It was the third time he notched at least 30 points and 10 assists in a game, but the first time he did it in regulation.
The Clippers built 11-point leads in both halves. Both times, Jackson led the Nuggets’ charge to evaporate those leads, a throwback to all of the comeback victories he contributed to in his memorable Clippers’ tenure. Jackson took turns beating just about every rotation Clipper in the first half en route to 17 points on 8-of-10 field goals, helping the Nuggets take a 58-56 lead at halftime. Clippers head coach Tyronn Lue resorted to blitzing Jackson’s pick-and-rolls more in the second half, and the Nuggets trailed 88-77 entering the final quarter of play.
“The first thing we said going into the fourth was, ‘We’re right here, we still got a chance, we just got to come out and get some stops,'” Jackson explained after the game. “Did that immediately. The team battled together.”
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Jackson’s big night was another embarrassing one for his old team in a young season already full of lowlights. Despite ranking near the bottom of the league in pick-and-roll ballhandler and isolation efficiency last season, per Synergy, Jackson simply got whatever he wanted on this night. On Jackson’s first play of the fourth quarter, he ran a pick-and-roll with Jordan, putting Clippers starter Terance Mann and backup center Daniel Theis in the action. Mann switched onto Jordan, but Theis was expecting Mann to recover back to Jackson, opening up room for a 3 that set the tone for a fourth quarter in which the Nuggets outscored the Clippers, 36-16.
Seldom will you see Lue as irate on the sideline as he was to begin this fourth quarter.
“Up 11, we’re not supposed to switch, we switch. Both guys go, Reggie hits a 3,” Lue lamented after Monday’s game. “It’s a lot of miscommunication on the floor. Guys are frustrated offensively, but they should be frustrated defensively as well. That’s when you should get mad, is on the defensive end. But I take full responsibility. We’re just not going to play that style of basketball.”
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Jackson knows what it is like to be on the side of a former Clippers guard returning to the arena desperately trying to get a win. When Patrick Beverley got his first road win against the Clippers while with the Minnesota Timberwolves in January 2022, he compiled a career-high 12 assists while shutting down Jackson and Eric Bledsoe.
“Clippers always looking for another guard because they say I wasn’t the playmaker,” Beverley said nearly two years ago. “It felt good locking Reggie and Eric up.”
On paper, it seems like the Clippers upgraded Jackson’s position. Last season, Jackson and John Wall were replaced by former Nugget Bones Hyland and Westbrook, who was a midseason buyout signing like Jackson. This season, the Clippers acquired Harden, ultimately bumping Westbrook out of the starting lineup and Hyland out of the rotation.
Jackson has enjoyed beating the Clippers, smiling from ear-to-ear after both Nuggets wins against them this season. However, Jackson found a straight face when asked about the Clippers’ issues in clutch time (2-7 record in games with a five-point margin or less in the last five minutes, third-worst in NBA) and in integrating Harden (fifth-worst offense in NBA since Harden’s debut).
“We tried to be physical, we took a page out of a few teams we had been playing,” Jackson said when explaining how Denver’s defense succeeded against the allegedly vaunted Clippers. “Everybody in the league knows they’re one of the most talented teams. I think over time they’ll figure it out. But it’s the hard part of the game. The hard part is going through the ups and downs of it, figuring it out together. They’re going to build continuity. Fortunately tonight, I think that’s the biggest thing we did, we tried to be physical and push them off their spots and throw off timing.”
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Being traded worked out for Jackson in the end, as he went on to win a ring with the Nuggets. But he was out of Denver’s playoff rotation, playing only 18 total minutes once the regular season ended. Now is the right time for Jackson to make his mark. His career night came just before Murray is expected to return, which could happen as soon as Wednesday against the Houston Rockets. If Denver coach Micahel Malone has his way, Jackson will keep the same energy against the rest of the league that he has for his former team.
“When Jamal Murray goes down to injury, Reggie’s out there just kind of running the show and doing it at a very high level,” Malone said Monday night. “He loves playing against the Clippers, that’s two games where he’s played really well against this team. I challenged him for the rest of the year, just in his mind, no matter who we’re playing: just tell himself he’s playing the Clippers again, because he’s great against that team. But I’m proud of him, because it wasn’t easy for him to come into a program and not have the success that he had wanted. And more importantly, for him not to be able to help the team as much as I know he wanted to help the team.
“But he is doing it now, and a lot of that is because of his experience, his maturity, his poise and just the work ethic he exhibited all summer long going into our preseason and training camp.”
(Photo of Reggie Jackson driving by Paul George: Andrew D. Bernstein / NBAE via Getty Images)