Thunder’s Jackson steps into spotlight OKC sub ends his slump in huge way
As Oklahoma City’s two superstars prepared to go to the podium after their 92-89 overtime win over Memphis on Saturday at FedExForum, reserve guard Reggie Jackson quietly dressed himself in front of a horde of media gathered at his locker.
Jackson passed his shower shoes to the locker room attendants. “I cleaned them off for you,” he said.
He had done the attendants’ job for them. And on a night when Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook combined to score just 30 points, he carried the load as well for Oklahoma City, scoring a career-high 32 points off the bench in helping even the first-round Western Conference playoff series at 2-2 and potentially saving the Thunder’s season.
With the series shifting back to Oklahoma City on Tuesday, Jackson, who had struggled for most of the first three games of the series, gave Memphis even more to be concerned about defensively with the Thunder having regained homecourt advantage and made the seven-game series now a best-of-three.
“He has been pretty quiet the whole series and to come out with a game like this means we definitely have to prepare for him going into Game 5,” Grizzlies guard Tony Allen said of Jackson, who scored the Thunder’s last five
points of regulation to force overtime after Memphis had led 80-75 with less than a minute left.
Jackson went on to score eight of Oklahoma City’s 12 points in overtime, putting the Thunder on his shoulders with Durant and Westbrook going a combined 11 of 45 from the field.
The third-year reserve did much of his damage driving aggressively to the rim off pick-and-rolls, going 11 of 16 from the floor and 8 of 8 from the free-throw line in discombobulating Memphis’ defensive schemes.
“He took advantage of the pick-and-roll. He was able to split and get into the paint and to the rim,” Grizzlies guard Mike Conley said. “He is a good player. We have to have our focus on the two superstars, but also on Reggie. He is their third scorer.”
Oklahoma City had gotten virtually nothing offensively from its bench in dropping Games 2 and 3 to the Grizzlies, whose reserves had outscored the Thunder’s 67-23 in the two games with Jackson having gone just 3 of 19 from the field in the series.
Still, Thunder coach Scott Brooks said before the Game 4 win Saturday that he believed Jackson was going to snap out of it, and it couldn’t have come at a more critical time for an Oklahoma City team potentially staring at a 3-1 series deficit.
“I knew he would bounce back,” Brooks said. “That’s what he’s done for us when he started (during the regular season for an injured Westbrook) and he’s done a great job of coming in and giving us that lift offensively when we’ve needed him as a sixth man.”
Asked about he and the Thunder bench’s struggles after Game 3, Jackson had smirked and shook his head, almost as if he couldn’t believe them himself. After his career performance Saturday, Jackson was both emotional and relieved to have shined so brightly when Oklahoma City desperately needed it, and nearly teared up when Durant put his arm around him after the game and told him he loved him.
“I never expected something like this to happen, especially in these playoffs,” Jackson said. “I just try to go out there and contribute; do my best and play. But we rely heavily upon our two stars in Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook, and unfortunately shots weren’t going down for them. As a team, we weren’t making shots that we’re accustomed to making. It feels like it’s been like that all series.
“It just felt good that I was seeing the ball finally go through the net. It’s a three-game series now.”