LOS ANGELES – DeAndre Jordan lowered his voice, doing his best Shaquille O’Neal impression at his locker following the Clippers win in Atlanta.
“Shaq Diesel,” Jordan joked, “make them when it counts.”
Jordan knocked down six of his eight fourth-quarter free throws when the Hawks started hacking late, as teams often do to Jordan when they get in desperation mode. The Clippers’ center made them pay in what became a two-point win, but he didn’t stop there. ‘
After going 7-for-12 from the line in that game, followed that performance up by hitting at least 50 percent of his free throws his next two games, as well, against the Lakers and Bulls.
Jordan’s up to 42.5 percent from the line this year after shooting 39.7 percent last season, and his percentages have gone up every month this year. In January, Jordan hit 48.5 percent of his free throws, shooting at least 50 percent from the line in eight games last month.
“I’m getting more and more confident,” Jordan said. “I know every night it’s probably going to happen; they will do it. It works sometimes; it doesn’t work at times. I just have to be ready for it whenever it happens.”
More importantly, he’s beginning to hit his free throws at the most crucial times.
What ended as a 27-point win against the Bulls was only a six-point lead with 4:20 remaining in the third quarter.
Jordan had just split his previous two free throws as the Bulls started hacking, and Chicago went right back to the strategy. Jordan responded by knocking down two free throws to stretch the lead to eight, and his success seemed to spark the Clippers, who led by 11 after the third quarter and by 18 not even two minutes into the fourth.
“Free-throw maker,” head coach Doc Rivers joked afterward. “But it’s been amazing. He’s actually making them. They all look good. He’s just got great focus as well, and we need him as much as anyone because he’s probably the only guy whose minutes may be going up a little bit.”
Rivers said they need Jordan’s energy, and with the late-game performances he’s put together recently at the line, the Clippers can keep him in at crunch time.
Jordan played an integral part of the Clippers’ victory against the Hawks – one of three wins on the Clippers’ recent five-game road trip, which included four games against the East’s top eight teams. The Clippers only led by two points with 3:35 remaining, and the Hawks kept hacking.
At the time, Rivers said Atlanta head coach Mike Budenholzer probably did the right thing by going to the move; but it didn’t pay off.
Jordan hit both free throws. Then Jeff Teague hit a layup to make it a two-point game once again. Five seconds later, the Hawks sent Jordan back to the line, and the center hit two free throws again.
“Big time,” Chris Paul said after the win. “It was huge. They stopped after a while. That’s only going to continue to give him more confidence. That’s why we won the game.”
Every so often, Jordan knocks down both free throws when the hacking starts. But it’s the fact he’s done it multiple times recently against top-notch talent which makes this stretch particularly noteworthy.
“That takes a strategy away, at least momentarily,” Rivers said.
Even if everyone knows it’s only a matter of time until the strategy returns.
“Oh, it will be back next game, don’t worry about that,” Rivers said. “But…in each game when he (makes them), it takes that one strategy away, and players get mad when you foul.”
Rivers said the players doing the hacking don’t like to do it to begin with, and they get even angrier when the player they’re hacking makes the free throws when they could’ve just played defense instead.
The hacking strategy is one Rivers uses occasionally on opponents, but he’s starting to come around to the opinion that the rule needs to change; however, with a player who gets hacked as often as Jordan, he knows he can’t be the one leading that movement.
In the meantime, the Clippers need to deal with the rules in place. And the more Jordan can do what he’s been doing at the line the last few games, the less they’ll need to worry about them.
“I want to be able to make them when it’s in the playoffs, you know what I mean? My percentages are getting better, and it’s better for our team,” Jordan said. “But I know teams will still do it, so I have to be ready.”
