Portland Trail Blazers Forward Jabari Walker recorded his second straight double-double in Saturday’s 107-100 overtime win over the Memphis Grizzlies on the road, scoring 18 points on 8-16 shooting and 12 rebounds.
No two points could be bigger than his two game-tying free throws with 1.3 seconds left in regulation to force overtime. Walker caught an Ashton Hagans miss under the basket — one of his five offensive rebounds — and was fouled by Memphis forward Santi Aldama on his putback attempt. The sophomore forward stepped to the line and calmly made the much-needed free throws.
In the postgame interview, Walker likened the moment to realizing a childhood dream.
Those were the biggest free throws I’ve shot in my career. It’s like something you dream about as a kid when you’re in bed you shoot the ball in the sky and when you’re in the driveway you shoot the ball like it’s the last second it’s so was the idea I was thinking when I came to free. cast the line, I was like, “Man, like when I was a kid,” so it’s crazy how full circle it is.
Walker was instrumental in Portland’s 18-point comeback in the fourth quarter, scoring eight of his 18 points and grabbing six of his 12 rebounds in the final 12 minutes of regulation. In the final minute of regulation, Walker also set up his game-tying free throws with an offensive putback to cut the deficit to 95-93 with 45 seconds left.
Walker said some inspiring words from veteran point guard Malcolm Brogdon on the bench helped spark the comeback.
I thought it was Malcolm, we were down, I think he was 18, we came out of the timeout, he said, ‘Man, you’re all playing hard, you’re all playing together,’ he said said, ‘you can all come back and win this. So I told him during the last timeout, “You called him first.” Because the way he said it, he said it with passion, we knew it was realistic, so I’m going to say it started with Malcolm.
Blazers reporter Brooke Olzendam noted that this was the first time in Walker’s career that he recorded consecutive double-doubles. Walker responded by saying he’s having fun on the field and that’s where he’s at his best.
You mentioned it, “fun.” Every time I have fun playing basketball, I smile and I play with passion, that’s my best basketball. If I could achieve this consistently, I feel like a great player.
If I can step away from formal third-person writing for a moment, I know the Blazers were playing close to a G League team in Memphis last night. This is not a victory you can hang your hat on as a declaration of victory and puff out your chest after too much. BUT, it’s nice to see hard workers like Walker and Hagans get a moment to shine and capitalize in high-pressure situations – doubly so to see how happy Walker was about it after the game. Will this be crucial for player development in the future? I don’t know. I’m not really sure what can be gleaned from these games when the opposition has so many guys and Portland is also playing without so many main characters. Hopefully this can serve as a good confidence booster for guys like Walker and Anfernee Simons, who have both struggled as of late, and perhaps it will translate into better performances in the future.
To quote Forrest Gump, “And that’s all I have to say about it.”
