How Reggie Jackson Found A Home With The LA Clippers

Written by Lachlan Sherriff

Reggie Jackson’s been in the league for a while. The Italian born point guard has played in the NBA since 2011, bouncing around from Oklahoma, to Detroit and now in LA with the Clippers. Anyone who watched Reggie in his prime years with the Pistons knew he wasn’t bad, he was just… inconsistent. Sure he’d put up 25 points one night but he’d follow it up with four points on 29% shooting the next. His defence wasn’t anything special, and he could never master the three point shot consistently. Still, he was the third star in a decent Detroit team with Blake Griffin and Andre Drummond, and he’s now completed a decade in the NBA, which is an achievement in itself. But this season with the LA Clippers, Jackson has been incredible. So how did this inconsistent mess turn into the best scorer on a serious playoff team?

The one thing Jackson’s always had going for him is that he’s been a nice scorer. Excluding his first two years, he had never averaged under twelve points a game, despite playing with talented players such as Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, James Harden, Serge Ibaka, Blake Griffin, Andre Drummond, Derrick Rose and Tobias Harris. We’ll start this story in the playoffs of 2018-19, when the Detroit Pistons played the Milwaukee Bucks in the playoffs. Yes, the Pistons played in the playoffs three years ago. And if you think that’s hard to believe, the Orlando Magic played the Bucks in the playoffs two years ago. And they won a game. What the hell happened?

Anyway, the Pistons didn’t win a game against Milwaukee, getting swept by Giannis and his team. With Blake Griffin missing the first three games, Jackson put up decent numbers, scoring twelve, eighteen and fifteen points, before scoring 26 points in game four despite Blake Griffin playing. This led to Jackson averaging 17.8 points, along with seven assists and three rebounds. Jackson showed his class in the 2019 playoffs, but remember what I said earlier. He’s notoriously inconsistent. Come the following season, Jackson only played fourteen more games for Detriot, starting ten of them. Only winning four, Reggie put up under ten points for the first time since 2013, while shooting an abysmal 38% from the field. Eventually Detroit and Reggie came to a buyout agreement, which then led to Reggie signing with the Clippers. And sure, he was a decent player, but I still don’t think anyone really batted an eye after the move. But fast forward to two years later, and Reggie Jackson is leading the Clippers into the playoffs despite Kawhi Leonard and Paul George being injured. So how did Reggie find a home with the Clippers?

When Reggie made his debut for the Clippers on the 22nd of Febuary, 2020, he played 23 minutes, but only managed to score eight points and four assists in a 112-103 loss to Sacramento. The Clippers went on a six game winning streak, but Reggie still never scored higher than 13 points. He finally found his groove with sixteen points and four assists in a blowout win against Golden State. Unfortunately, that happened on the same day Rudy Gobert touched a microphone, and, well, you know the rest. Unlucky timing.

In the bubble, Jackson played eight regular season games, top scoring with seventeen points, and averaged 23 and a half minutes. Things would go fine in the playoffs right?

Wrong.

Jackson didn’t score a single point in the first game of the playoffs. He would then go on to score eleven, six, fourteen, eleven again, and fourteen again, all while Luka hit a game winner on him and Kawhi cussed him out on national TV. Things got worse against Denver, when LA suffered one of the worst defeats in their history, losing in seven. Jackson played thirteen minutes but didn’t score in game one, and then only scored three points in nine minutes in game two. He then wouldn’t score again in the series, playing five minutes in game three, one minute in game four, having a DNP in game five, and then only playing another minute in game six and four minutes in game seven, as the Clips lost in a series they were favoured. It was fair to say that his Clippers career, and perhaps his NBA career, was in serious danger. With that being said, Reggie would get another chance next season, one that he had to grasp immediatel-

Oh.

Reggie didn’t find the spark he would’ve liked at the start of the 2021 season. Before March, he only scored over fifteen points four times, and picked up three more DNPs. Reggie then scored 25 points against Boston at the start of March. This set off somewhat of a purple patch, but have a look at those numbers. It’s the definition of inconsistent. And it meant that going into the playoffs, no one really had any expectations. It was then though that we were introduced to playoff Reggie.

Okay, he scored two points in game one. Next game though, we saw Playoff Reggie. Jackson put up fifteen or more points in the final six games, including a 25 piece in a vital game six win. In the second round against the Jazz, there was more. In four of the six games, Reggie scored fifteen plus, and even scored 29 in game two. But without a doubt, the best we’ve seen Reggie play was the Western Conference Finals against Phoenix. Game one of the NBA Western Conference finals, the Clippers were playing the Suns in Phoenix and Jackson exploded. Superstar Kawhi Leonard missed the entire series with an ACL injury and even though Paul George was still hooping, it was clear that the Clips were gonna need someone to step up. That person was Reggie Jackson. Immediately it became clear that Jackson was the second best player on the court. Jackson came out hot and ended the game with 24 points, six rebounds and four assists. The Suns won, but Jackson looked great. In game two Jackson once again showed his class, with 19, 5, 3 and 2, and would’ve gotten the win if Paul George made his free throws or DeAndre Ayton didn’t score this lob. But now LA were 2-0 down, and to make it worse, Chris Paul was playing in game three, after missing the first two games. But despite all the odds against Reggie, he was incredible. Jackson had 23 points, along with three assists and two steals. Chris Paul held his own with 15 and 12, but it’d be fair to say Jackson outplayed him, especially with the Clippers picking up an 106-92 record. The Suns would win the next game, but Jackson still put up twenty, and then followed it up with another 23 point game in a Clippers game five win. In game six the Suns closed out the series and held Jackson to thirteen, but people took notice of how Jackson had played throughout the entire playoffs. He had become less selfish, and also improved his jump shot and defense. Clippers GM Michael Winger gave Reggie a two year extension, and so we get into the 2021-22 NBA season.

Above: Reggie Jackson became a breakout star in the Western Conference Finals for the Clippers against Phoenix

The Clippers started their season off okay. Jackson wasn’t scoring big amounts but he didn’t need to, Paul George was playing the best we had ever seen him play in a Clippers uniform. What was huge was that Reggie was consistently playing over thirty minutes a game. After the departure of long-time point guard Patrick Beverly in the offseason, and while Eric Bledsoe and Justice Winslow could both play the one, it was clear Reggie was gonna play the majority of the minutes. Things were going fine for LA, as the Paul George led team stayed in the playoffs despite not having Kawhi. Unfortunately, PG also suffered his fair share of injuries, missing 32 games. This is where Reggie Jackson has taken his chance. Without PG13, Jackson has popped off, averaging 16.8 points, 5.5 assists and 3.8 rebounds while George sat out. He’s had over thirty twice this year, and truly put the league on notice in the most recent LA derby. Reggie was two rebounds and an assist shy of a triple double, and had a career high 36 points in a Clippers blowout. Keep in mind this was only eight days after he skipped, literally skipped, up the court, and hit the game winner against the same opponents. So what’s changed for Reggie? Where did this incredible form even come from?

Reggie Jackson had a reputation around the league for numerous things including being selfish and a bad teammate. This was something that stuck with him after his messy fallout with the OKC, where Serge Ibaka and Kendrick Perkins froze him out of the offense, before Steven Adams admitted that the Thunder didn’t miss him once he left. Things didn’t get better in Detroit, after former Pistons coach Stan Van Gundy called him selfish and Pistons fans quickly realized the same thing. But now in Los Angeles, things have changed. Whether it was an intentional change or just maturing over time, Jackson has done well to get his teammates involved in the offense. He’s now ditched that selfish label, and apparently is very popular amongst his Clippers teammates. The way he’s changed his game is evident to why he’s come so far with the Clippers.