Jackson thriving lately for short-handed Thunder
Justin Jackson likes to get shots up every game day around 9 a.m. at the Thunder's practice facility, but he didn't know if he could keep his routine Sunday with blistering winds and snow blanketing Oklahoma City.
“Thankfully I was able to get in there,” Jackson said.
A little more than 12 hours later Jackson rattled in a game-sealing 3- pointer in the Thunder' s 114-109 win against the Bucks at Chesapeake Energy Arena.
Starting for just the second time this season, Jackson score date am-high and season- high 22 points on 9-of-16 shooting.
Thunder center Al Horford rushed to celebrate with a smiling Jackson after the shot, which Jackson buried with 14 seconds left.
“We've been in so many tough battles recently, and for Justin to step up and take that one, if we would've had
fans in here the building would've went down at that point,” Horford said. “It was just so exciting. The whole time when he shot it I was just like, `Please go in.' One of those things that you wanted to work out and it did. That was the dagger.”
The dagger was set up by Darius Bazley, who made a tough catch on the wing before passing to Jackson.
“He made ana mazing catch,” Jackson said. “And for me, I saw the shot clock kinda running down so I just tried to step into it and knock it down. Thankfully the good Lord blessed me on that one.”
The fourth-year forward started in place of Hamidou Diallo, who had started five of the last six games. Dial los hot just 3- of -16 Sunday night off the bench, but he tied his career high with 1 3 rebounds.
“We' re trying to look at this as an opportunity to try to discover different things with the team tactically and personnel wise ,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said of starting Jackson .“And then we closed with him because obviously he was playing really well. Played really well in Denver.”
Jackson has led the Thunder in scoring in back-to-back games with 20 and 22 points.
“J-Jackson, he' s a worker,” guard Luguentz Dort said. “He stepped up. He' s getting way more minutes and he's just hooping and playing hard. That's what we want him to do.”
Back on track
Dort shot 3-of-8 from 3- point range against the Bucks. It was his first game with multiple 3-pointers since Jan. 27.
Dort was 4-of-35 (11%) from deep in his last seven games before Sunday night.
“He was relentless not only shooting it better tonight, but getting to the rim and getting to the line,” Daigneault said.
Dort attempted nine free throws but made just four of them.
Injury update
Every Thunder starter scored in the double digits Sunday night, and Jackson, Bazley, Dort and Horford all scored at least 18 points.
The Thunder was still without Shai GilgeousAlexander( left knee sp rain ), Theo Male don ( health and safety protocols) and George Hill (right thumb procedure).
Daigneault didn't have much of an update on Gilgeous-Alexander.
"It' s the same ,” Daigneault said before the game Sunday. “He's right there. He'll go through the on-court warmup again with very little restriction. We' re just being cautious."
Roberson draws interest
The Nets recently considered signing former Thunder wing Andre Roberson, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic.
Roberson played in seven games last season after missing two and a half years rehabbing multiple knee injuries.
Roberson started 269 games for the Thunder in six seasons. The Thunder did not re-sign him when his contract expired at the end of last season.