Reggie Jackson had season highs of 35 points and 13 assists, DeAndre Jordan added season bests of 21 points and 13 rebounds, and the duo used familiar surroundings to power the short-handed Denver Nuggets to a 113-104 victory over the host Los Angeles Clippers on Monday.
Reggie Jackson makes it count
Jackson scored 35 points, making 15 of his 19 shots, and had 13 assists. Six went to Jordan, the former Clipper center who had 21 points and 13 rebounds.
Jackson reached the 30-point mark for the first time since the 2021-22 season, when he was with the Clippers.
The two former Clippers stepped up for the Nuggets, who were without Nikola Jokic (back), Aaron Gordon (heel) and Jamal Murray (hamstring). Jokic, a two-time MVP, missed a game for the first time this season.
Justin Holiday and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope each scored 12 points and Michael Porter Jr. pulled down 10 rebounds for the Nuggets, who improved to 6-5 since Nov. 6, all with Murray out of action.
The circumstances of the Clippers’ struggle made this a head-scratching mystery as much as a standard-fare loss. Denver (12-6) was playing on a second consecutive night and without its stars. The Clippers entered having won four of their previous five games, describing themselves as gradually getting more comfortable nearly one month since the roster-shaking trade for Harden.
Unable to generate balanced scoring between their starting star trio of Paul George, James Harden and Kawhi Leonard, unable to hold onto a double-digit lead three times and unable to keep Nuggets understudies Reggie Jackson and DeAndre Jordan from looking like the stars they replaced, the Clippers (7-9) had no answers.
Kawhi Leonard scored 31 points and Ivica Zubac added 23 points and 14 rebounds for the Clippers, who had won four of their previous five games.
Russell Westbrook had 14 points and 11 rebounds and James Harden added 11 points for the Clippers, who could not overcome a rough shooting night for leading scorer Paul George, who finished 2 of 13 from the field and scored six points. Los Angeles is 4-7 since Harden, acquired from the Philadelphia 76ers, began playing.
The Clippers were 7-0 when holding a lead entering the fourth quarter. Now they’re 7-1.
Trailing 88-77 heading into the fourth quarter, the Nuggets opened the final period on a 15-2 run and led 92-90 after a short-range basket by Jackson with 7:28 remaining. Jackson had five points in the scoring spurt.
After a floater by Leonard pulled the Clippers within 94-93 with 6:31 to go, Los Angeles did not make another field goal until 1:13 remained, when Leonard sank a layup to slice Denver’s lead to four.
The Clippers looked poised to take advantage of the Nuggets’ absences when they opened a six-point lead in the first quarter, and the hosts were up 42-31 with 9:03 remaining in the first half. However, Denver went on a 12-0 run to take a one-point lead and was up 58-56 at halftime.
Denver led 70-68 midway through the third quarter before Los Angeles went on a 18-5 run to go up by 11.
As Jackson, the immensely popular former Clipper traded by the team last season, dribbled out the clock, boos were few because so many fans had already left for the exits with 40 seconds still to play. Denver closed the game on a 10-2 run.
To say the issues were offensive only, however, would have overlooked how the Clippers’ defense against pick-and-rolls made Jackson look like Murray, and Jordan like Jokic. Jackson scored 18 points in the first half by finding open seams and charging toward the basket. When his drives were closed off, Jackson often lobbed or dished to Jordan. As this was happening, there was often a Nugget cutting unchecked along the baseline, ready for a layup.
The Clippers found a way to avoid such possessions in the fourth quarter by repeatedly fouling Jordan, a 47% free-throw shooter for his career, in the Hack-A-Jordan strategy the Clippers once loathed when the 7-footer was on their roster. He made five of his 11 free throws. The strategy was a last-ditch effort to stop a loss whose foundation had been laid much earlier in the game, however.