Justin Jackson’s 11-point first quarter had me freaking out a little bit. Only a little bit, because I knew from past experience that he wouldn’t keep it up, but you know that Carlisle told him to go out there and show his old teammates what they were missing out on. And even if Jackson didn’t want to do it, because scoring isn’t something he usually wants to do, he went out there and shot the ball into the hoop as Kings fans desperately banged their cowbells as if they were trying to ward off a witches’ curse.
I considered making this video with the Sacramento commentators so I could hear them saying stuff like “it’s good to see him finally being aggressive offensively” and “where was this in Sacramento huh huh huh”. Perhaps I should’ve since the Mavericks commentators were aware of the revenge Jackson was exacting on his former team, but weren’t especially excited about it.
Jackson has now scored 40 points in the last two games. I don’t remember what people were saying after the Jackson/Harrison Barnes swap, probably some jokes were made about Zach Randolph (who was also involved), but if they were thinking that the Mavs got the raw end of the deal, well, look who’s the 20ppg scorer now. It’s not Barnes. It used to be Barnes, but it isn’t anymore. It’s Jackson.