The Minnesota Timberwolves struck first in the Western Conference Semifinals of the NBA Playoffs to take a 1-0 lead against the Denver Nuggets. The Wolves were led by Anthony Edwards’ 43 points as he joined some elite company in being amongst the youngest players to score 35 or more points in three straight playoff games. This is the first time since last season that the Nuggets have trailed in a playoff series, but Reggie Jackson thinks it will be fun to see if they’re up for the challenge as per Dave McMenamin of ESPN.
“It makes it fun. It makes it a little tougher of course, I’m sure. The front office being here before, I’m sure they’re geared up to play this team,” Jackson said. “It has to be fun on their end. Like, you helped build something and now you’re trying to tear it apart. . .It is exciting to be in any realm of this – just to be staff, whether you’re players. This is what the playoffs is about. It’s fun. It’s fun to go at the end of the night and look yourself in the mirror and see how you can get better.”
“I look forward to the task and yeah, they’re geared up to play against us. They know what we want to do. We know what they want to do and it’s going to be a battle of will. This is really fun because it’s going to be a battle of will. It’s going to be a battle of attrition. Everything that you’ve done throughout the season and preseason and we’ll find out who is going to come out swinging and who wants it the most.”
With their Game 1 win, the Timberwolves stole homecourt advantage from the Nuggets. In order to even the series in Game and 2, the Nuggets are going to need more strong production from players like Jackson off the bench.
Reggie Jackson can play a key role for the Nuggets in Game 2
When the Nuggets lost Bruce Brown and Jeff Green in free agency this past offseason, many believed that their depth had taken a hit. And for the most part that’s kind of been true. The Nuggets haven’t really got the same level of bench production that they did during last season’s championship run.
But one player whose role has expanded this season and into the postseason in Reggie Jackson. Jackson was signed as a free agent on the buyout market last year, but didn’t play that much during the Nuggets title run.
This year though, Jackson has been a key player off the bench as a backup guard. He appeared in all 82 games for the Nuggets, including 23 starts, at a little over 22 minutes per game. He averaged 10.2 points per game, 1.9 rebounds and 3.8 assists with split of 43.1 percent shooting from the field, 35.9 percent shooting from the three point line and 80.6 percent shooting from the free throw line.
In Game 1 against the Wolves, Jackson played 15 minutes off the bench and finished with five points, three rebounds, one assist and one steal while shooting 2-3 from the field and 1-1 from the three point line.
