The Kings were looking really good prior to this game. All their role-players were showing up, De’Aaron Fox was looking like a star in the making, and Nemanja Bjelica was making everyone better. Then came the Bucks, and everyone failed to show up except for this man. Justin Jackson.
Him “showing up” often means “scoring in double figures or notching at least 2 of some other stat”, but he really showed up for real in this one. 22 points, a career high. Kings fans often get after this guy for not doing much to affect games, but where are the haters now? Hating somewhere else, because Jackson’s game was sick. Count the number of times he hit rim in this video.
All this while facing his darkened doppelganger, Tony Snell. I was looking forward to this battle of do-nothing players who by virtue of doing nothing don’t usually evoke much ire. Jackson came out ahead, but Snell also stepped up, hitting a few threes for himself. They’re not exactly the same player, but almost the only difference is that Jackson likes taking floaters. Which is a bad sign because floaters are the sole domain of bad players and Tony Parker.