The Clippers took up court in Sacramento on Friday without two of their veterans: The sixth man, Lou Williams, had to take a break with a sore hip, coach Tyronn Lue said, and starting point guard Patrick Beverley was absent for personal reasons, according to the team .
Reggie Jackson – from zero minutes to the starter’s minutes – stood up for Beverley.
On Friday, Jackson hadn’t played at all in two games. And he hadn’t played in the two for more than eight minutes before. The 30-year-old was a starter in 348 of his 571 NBA career games and hadn’t started this season.
But when he broke news that the Clippers were about to start a rotation that didn’t identify him, Lue asked Jackson to stand by.
And Jackson, Lue said, vowed that when the time came, it would be him – every two games later.
« It was a tough talk for me because I thought he actually played well, » said Lue of that discussion with Jackson, who this season totaled 46.8 percent and 38.5 percent off the 3-point -Range shoots.
« But we couldn’t all play boys, » Lue continued. “You know that this is coming into the season. We tried the first 10 games and we said we wanted to do this just to see what it looks like.
« I spoke to Reggie and he received it well. If you are a veteran and a professional and you want to win, do whatever you can to try to win. I told him to stay ready, it’s a long season, with the COVID, injuries, things like that you have to be ready. He said he would be, he understood, and he liked the communication.
« Tonight he will get a chance to start and play and I know he will play well. »
Lue suggested that this Jackson run might not last that long; Williams’ hip feels good enough that he took part in the shootaround on Friday.
« I think we’ll see him soon, » said Lue. « Just something we want to be careful about just to make sure it doesn’t last for the rest of the season. It’s just something we want to be smart about. He got on the ground at shootaround this morning and tried it out which was a good sign.
Amid roster thinning as NBA teams tackle the coronavirus pandemic, the league is reportedly moving towards an expansion of regular season rosters, according to ESPN.
If the NBA and National Basketball Players Association opt out, teams could be granted an additional two-way roster slot for the remainder of the regular season to increase the roster options available for teams facing issues related to Coronaviruses to fight.
By late Friday afternoon, the league had postponed 13 games – 12 since Sunday. A total of 18 teams postponed at least one game.
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Lue said he liked the idea of adding more manpower: “I think that’s a good idea. With the COVID and everything that’s going on, the boys are missing games. Allowing teams to add additional staff would help either get the guys healthy or get contact tracing (logs). I think it’s important to only move forward when we can get extra bodies that are easier for the teams. »
« It might help, » said Walton. “The advantages are that you have an extra body. The downside is that you add one more person to the tour group, the daily Tier 1 group, who always interact. The smaller you can keep the group, the (less) likely you are to get cases.
« But as it goes, there are seldom training days anyway, and when you get to those days for many teams right now you don’t even have the bodies to train. » So the whole thing is difficult.
“I know the NBA will continue to try to do everything possible to ensure safety, and then we have our responsibility as coaches, players and medical staff to do our part. But yeah, I’m fine however they handle it. »
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