It's hard to figure out which superlatives to highlight after Reggie Jackson's performance Sunday at the Moda Center. Somehow Jackson was able to accomplish the following things against a quality NBA team. A team that up to that point had been dominating the Pistons and Jackson in particular, all night.
- Career-high 40 points? Check.
- Franchise-high tying record 26 points in the fourth quarter? Check.
- Scoring those 26 points in seven minutes of game time? Check.
- Jackson 26 points, Blazers 5 points during fourth-quarter run? Check.
Jackson was able to accomplish all this with a simple, relentless attack in the high pick-and-roll. It's not like Detroit was able to do anything fancy out of the play. The Blazers took away the possibility for Drummond lobs. Detroit's perimeter threats were hardly involved. Nope, instead it was just Reggie Jackson imposing his will on the other team.
He used an electric first step to knife between defenders on the perimeter and then exquisite body control, strength and steadiness to turn seemingly impossible shots into simple layups. It was a clinic and as the Blazers got more and more demoralized, the shots just came easier and easier.
I mean, just look at this run (h/t to DBBer benjals):
As benjals posted in our recap https://t.co/huDFW9vk9I pic.twitter.com/EWxKQRBJiQ
— Detroit Bad Boys ☠ (@detroitbadboys) November 9, 2015
Watch here as Mason Plumlee is so preoccupied with keeping a body on Drummond to eliminate the oop and rebounding opportunity that Jackson is able to waltz right to the hoop.
And here, even though the lengthy Plumlee contests the shot, Jackson uses expert body control and a soft touch to kiss it off the glass anyway.
Here, Jackson's path to the basket is completely cut off. Instead of resetting the offense, however, Jackson stays aggressive and puts a little shake-and-bake move on Meyers Leonard and unleashes an unblockable floater in the lane.
And then, of course, there are the jumpers. Never the strength of Jackson's game, but he was cooking and everything was falling. He used a series of jumpers to get rolling, but nothing was as cool as this 3-point strike. Not only is the shot pure, but it shows off Jackson's smarts. Here he knows that the Blazers will try to intentionally foul Drummond and so Jackson unleashes the shot. If the refs had bothered to call the weak but intentional contact on Dre, Detroit would have gotten the 3-pointer and a free throw.
Jackson's performance, and the performance of the Pistons in general left the Blazers' ace Twitter team flummoxed.
@DetroitPistons No. 1 on your team has zero chill
— Trail Blazers (@trailblazers) November 9, 2015
— Trail Blazers (@trailblazers) November 9, 2015
…good game @DetroitPistons pic.twitter.com/aawOjHRKLL
— Trail Blazers (@trailblazers) November 9, 2015