Reggie Jackson Steals Show, Sends Clippers to Another Embarrassing Loss
The former Clippers guard delivered a career-best performance in his return to Los Angeles.
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Throw a rock in Los Angeles and you’ll hit an aspiring actor. After all, Hollywood is right down the road from Crypto.com Arena. On Monday night, center stage belonged to Reggie Jackson as he played one of the best leading roles you’ll ever see.
The current Denver Nuggets guard got a nice ovation as he was introduced before the game to a crowd that he once called home when he was a member of the LA Clippers from 2020-2023.
Then, with retribution on his mind, Jackson put forth the single best outing he’s ever had in his 13-year career.
Jackson finished the night with 35 points, 13 assists, five rebounds, two steals, and only two turnovers. The list of players to do that is a minuscule one: it had happened only 12 times in the tracking era before Monday. But then add the other caveat into all of this: Jackson was a blistering 15-for-19 from the field in his 40 minutes. It made Jackson the first player in tracking era history to have at least 35 points, 13 assists, two or fewer turnovers, and shoot above 75 percent from the field.
When asked after the game if this was the best game of his career, Jackson was coy, saying in part, “Definitely one of the sweeter ones.”
Early in the first quarter during a timeout, the video board above the court played a tribute video to Jackson that showed some of his best moments when he wore a Clippers jersey. Jackson would respond immediately afterward by blowing a kiss to the cheering crowd and throwing up a heart gesture.
“I honestly look back to an organization that saved me,” Jackson said in the visiting locker room after the game when asked what he remembers fondly about his time with the Clippers.
“A group of guys who continued to stick with me — coaches, front office, especially my guy PG (Paul George) all the time. … I wouldn’t be here without him, I wouldn’t be here without that group, a lot of those guys that I played with in the locker room and building me up each and every day, encouraging me to continue to go, continue to love the game and try to give back to it.”
Jackson played 211 games for the Clippers, averaging 12.8 points and turning in one of the most heroic playoff stints in franchise history when he averaged 17.8 points on 48.4 percent shooting across 19 games in 2021 to help deliver the franchise their first-ever conference finals appearance.
“I’m forever indebted to this organization, to this fanbase,” Jackson remarked. “Yeah, I’m definitely a Denver Nugget — hometown kid, loving it. But I’ll always have some LA Clipper blood running through my veins.”
Jackson’s Nuggets (12-6) rallied from an 11-point deficit entering the fourth quarter to dispatch a Clippers (7-9) team that looked lackluster for vast stretches of this game despite facing a Denver squad that was missing Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray, and Aaron Gordon.
The absences didn’t phase the Nuggets as they used a 36-16 fourth-quarter outburst to defeat the Clippers, 113-104.
To make things more painful for the Clippers, Jackson wasn’t the only Nugget to haunt his former team on Monday night.
Former Clippers stalwart center DeAndre Jordan finished with 21 points, 13 rebounds, and five assists in 33 minutes as he filled in for the missing Jokic. It was only the second time in Jordan’s illustrious career he’s had a game where he hit those marks.
Six of Jackson’s 13 assists went to Jordan.
The Clippers have now suffered multiple embarrassing defeats early in the season despite Kawhi Leonard and Paul George playing in each of the team’s 17 contests.
A loss to the Memphis Grizzlies roughly two weeks ago was the low point of this Clippers season, but Monday’s loss at home to a Nuggets squad without their three best players is certainly the new barometer for which all future disappointments will be measured.
It was probably the worst loss suffered by an NBA team thus far this season, and it’s something the Clippers will have to remedy quickly as they get ready to head up to Northern California and take on the Sacramento Kings and Golden State Warriors in a back-to-back that will surely test their mettle and resolve following this disastrous performance.
Before Monday night, the LA Clippers had won 128 consecutive games when entering the fourth quarter leading by more than 10 points. That streak has now been snapped.
Kawhi Leonard finished with 31 points, eight rebounds, three assists, two blocks, and one steal in 39 minutes. Leonard shot 10-for-26 from the field. Paul George had arguably his worst outing of the season as he registered just six points on 2-for-13 shooting while tallying more turnovers (3) than made shots and nearly as many fouls (5) as points.
Ivica Zubac registered a season-high 23 points and a season-high-tying 14 rebounds in 32 minutes. Terance Mann added five points as he notched his sixth consecutive start. Russell Westbrook chipped in with 14 points and 11 rebounds off the bench as he played the final 16 minutes of the game as the Clippers attempted to at first stave off a Denver rally and then also attempt to make a rally of their own.
But a substantial story in this game, as it has been in recent weeks, was the absence of James Harden in the fourth quarter. Harden played the final eight minutes of the fourth but did not attempt a single shot. Harden made a three-pointer with roughly three minutes to go in the third quarter and did not attempt a single field goal after that, a span of 11 minutes of game action.
Harden has now gone the last three fourth quarters he’s played without making a basket. That comes out to 23 minutes while attempting just two shots in that time. The Clippers have been outscored by 21 points in those 23 minutes.
The guard has ebbed and flowed at times as he tries to navigate between aggressiveness and acquiescence, but the Clippers, if they are to be successful, need Harden to find another gear. In his time so far with the Clippers, Harden is just 2-for-12 in fourth quarters and has more turnovers (6) than assists (5).
Norman Powell had 10 points off the bench but shot just 2-for-8; Daniel Theis finished with four points in 12 minutes; and PJ Tucker played six first-half minutes before getting a second-half DNP for the second straight game. Tucker has now gone 86 consecutive minutes of playing time without scoring.
As mentioned earlier, the Clippers now get to face a Kings squad that they’ve lost three in a row against.
If the Clippers are to have any hope of ending November on a strong note, they need to win that game. It depends on which version shows up, and also which version of Harden they see on the floor that night.
But while their new point guard faltered, their old point guard starred. And for one night near Hollywood, Clippers fans got to see Big Government bail out a team again — even if it wasn’t their own.