The weirdest and most awesome game I have ever seen
Jordan and Jackson sure looked like Michael on Monday night
Note: This article was delayed until today, I had a big test due.
Let me be clear. I love weird games. Weird games are awesome. When a rocket scientist/journeyman quarterback who didn’t know but three plays steps in and leads his team to a comeback win, that’s awesome. When a 29-year-old outfielder who spent 7 years in the minors and hit .244/.313/.364 the year prior hits a walk-off home run in the World Series, that’s awesome. When a guy scores a game-winning, kickoff-return touchdown while running into a member of the opposing team’s band, that’s awesome.
And when two old journeymen of the NBA - one once great and now washed down the drain, who hasn’t had a 20-point/10-rebound game since 2019, the other, this one constantly scrutinized (Is he good? Is he bad? Nobody knows!!!) - they both have amazing games on the same night and carry their team, depleted and forced to start Justin Holiday, to a win over another team with four future Hall of Famers, who all played?
That’s not just awesome, that’s legendary.
Summary
On Monday night, the Denver Nuggets limped into the Clipper’s home base, The Staples Center (I WILL NEVER CALL IT THE CRYPTO.COM ARENA JEANIE BUSS FIGHT ME). Their two best players, Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray, were injured (also, their forth-best player, Aaron Gordon, was out). Their best players were probably Michael Porter Jr and then, like, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope? Geez. Michael Porter Jr is most famous for inviting high schoolers to his house for $800 NBA 2K game bets (and he took their money), and KCP once played a game with an ankle monitor on. Not really the kind of players you want leading your team into battle. Also, the Clippers have these dudes named Kawhi Leonard, Paul George, James Harden, and Russell Westbrook. They’re like, usually, really freaking good at basketball.
But somehow, the Nuggets won.
The heroes?
The 33-year-old Reggie Jackson, a point guard who isn’t even the most famous Reggie Jackson in sports (you actually have to search “reggie jackson nba” to find him lol), and the 35-year-old De’Andre Jordan, a 6’11 center who hasn’t been elite since he was (1. trapped in his own house, (2. against his will, (3. by his teammates and coach, and (4. effectively ransomed against himself*.
Now for boring box score analysis
My first reaction
Remember Michael Porter Jr and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, the guys I said were the Nuggets best players with Jokic and Murray out? Yeah, they shot 4-27 combined. That means they made 15% of their shots. The fact that the Nuggets managed to pull this out, despite their two best-playing players shooting an absolutely putrid 15% just speaks volumes to how good Jackson and Jordan were in this game. Cool side note: 4/27 is a recurring decimal - 0.148148148 and etc! Now you can write this reading off as educational.
Statistics are dumb
Uh, the Nuggets were -21 points worse when their bench players played? Very freaking weird. Again, speaks volumes to how valuable Reggie Jackson and Deandre Jordan were in this game, a sentence that actually felt weird to type out in 2023. The Nuggets were +42 points better with Jackson and Jordan. Also, the Clippers were worse with Ivica Zubac on the floor, despite him having 23 points and 11 rebounds. But they were better with James Harden on the floor, who had…11 points and 4 assists? And it’s not like they didn’t play him enough, a basketball game is 48 minutes - Harden played 36. Honestly, I’m not even suprised about anything about this game anymore. I’m just numb.
The other side of awesome
Apparently having four future Hall of Famers, two still in their prime, doesn’t even remotely matter anymore. Because, why not! Not including Kawhi Leonard, the other future Hall of Famers combined for 31 points total. (Kawhi had 31 by himself.) I know Harden and Westbrook aren’t elite anymore, but still. Zubac was great, something that has been rare. Zubac is famous for getting mad at Nikola Jokic last year for accidentally twerking, so as you can tell, he’s never been that awesome.
The cool names section
The Denver Nuggets have Zeke Nnaji, Deandre Jordan and Jalen Pickett. The Los Angeles Clippers have Norman Powell, Bones Hyland and Moussa Diabaté. Zeke Nnaji and Moussa Diabaté are two of the best names in the NBA, period. Zeke Nnaji is just an incredible name, maybe an all-timer. Deandre Jordan is a crappy side character in an action movie-name. Jalen Pickett is a “I went to the University of Kansas”-name (he actually went to Penn State, somehow). Norman Powell is a character in a James Patterson novel.
And now for some serious Reggie Jackson and Deandre Jordan love
Reggie Jackson is awesome. He has been since he came in the league and probably will be forever. He went to Boston College, which is awesome. Other notable athletes to go to Boston College? Doug Flutie and Matt Ryan! And who doesn’t like those two? (Actually, Bill Romanowski went there, but still). He was drafted to one of the most awesome teams ever in 2013, the original Westbrook-Harden-KD Oklahoma City Thunder. By 2016, he was averaging 19 points a game for Stan Van Gundy’s Detroit Pistons, who are like, the most unhateable team ever (if you don’t like Ersan Ilyasova, I don’t like you.)! He was cut by a vastly different Pistons (Ersan long gone 😭) team in 2020, and 16 months later was averaging 20 ppg in the Conference Finals for the Clippers. Now he’s averaging 13 ppg for the Nuggets, and just exploded for 20 and 35 points in back-to-back games.
Deandre Jordan is slightly less awesome, or at least was on the Clippers (yes, that’s right, both of them are former Clippers players). But when he got to the Dallas Mavericks in 2019, he was a changed man. He had finally shed the weight of playing with the toxic StateFarm spokesman Chris Paul and the whining, redheaded, standup comedian Blake Griffin. Yeah, he wasn’t good on the Mavericks, or the Knicks, or the Nets, or the Lakers, or the 76ers, or the Nuggets, but he’s now the NBA’s version of Big, a happy little kid in a huge body.
Even the buckets they scored were amazing!!! I know this seems like common sense, but I’ve seen Trae Young score 20+ points countless times just from drawing crappy fouls. Jackson and Jordan legitimately looked like stars again, which is, in essence, what made this game so awesome and weird.
Take a look at these:
We see Reggie dart to and from, lightning-bug like, but also not really because he’s clearly the predator. He’s a praying mantis. He dances around the wing for a little bit, playing with his food, before stepping back and absolutely lacing a three. Savage.
What??!! Deandre Jordan is 35, y’all! And he’s still boxing out two guys at once??? And then he dunked over Ivica Zubac? If you showed this clip to me, and I didn’t have any idea who Deandre Jordan was, I would legimately think he was still an elite player.
I mean, look at the power here! That’s just insane for a 35-year-old. Perfect one-handed yam.
I don’t even want to write anything because nothing I write will compare to how insane that layup was. Off glass, right handed from the left side (the hardest type of layup btw), off the wrong foot, off balance, after a jump. Jesus christ.
In conclusion, old people are cool, and especially old people that wear goggles and can dunk.
-Ian