So much for trash talk. After listening to Charlie Ward and Chris Childs discuss their upcoming task in the NBA playoffs – defending Mark Jackson – you’d think the Indiana point guard was the second coming of Magic Johnson.
“He’s a very smart ballplayer,” said Childs. “He passes the ball out of the post better than anybody probably since Magic. As far as knowing when to pass, how to pass, seeing the whole court. And that’s the benefit you have of playing with guys that many years, you know where they’re going to be at all times.
“You take one thing away and he goes to the second option,” continued Childs. “You take the second option away, he goes to the third, fourth fifth option. From that aspect, he’s one of the best.”
Certainly Jackson is a unique challenge considering the point guards Ward and Childs faced in the first two rounds of the playoffs. At 6-foot-3, 190 pounds, Jackson is bigger, stronger and more savvy than either the Heat’s Tim Hardaway, who couldn’t buy a basket in the first-round series, or Mookie Blaylock, who like the rest of the Hawks missed his wake-up call in the second round.
While the 6-foot Hardaway’s forte is the crossover dribble and 3-point shot, and the 6-1 Blaylock’s strength is penetrating and open-floor defense, Jackson uses his size to back down opponents and then uses his vision to spot the open man when teams double-team. He’s been almost flawless in the playoffs, handing out 72 assists, almost four times more than anyone else on the Pacers, while committing just 19 turnovers.
“Jackson is as good a low post player, I don’t care if your talking about a guard or a big guy as there is in the league,” said Knick coach Jeff Van Gundy. “He’s extremely efficient. And he can just pick you apart if you double him in the post. He just presents a huge challenge in the low post.”
According to the 6-2 Ward and the 6-3 Childs, who have combined for 68 assists and 23 turnovers, the Knicks’ plan is to defend Jackson one-on-one and force him to beat them with his shot, not his precision passing. The 76ers constantly ran double teams on Jackson, who dominated Allen Iverson and Eric Snow in the post.
“Right now we’re guarding him with single coverage,” said Ward. “I’ll just have to lift a few more weights this week to get better leverage.”
Jackson doesn’t possess Magic’s flair (who does?) and he doesn’t tower over opposing guards as the 6-9 Johnson once did. But Jackson always has a big chip on his shoulder when he plays the Knicks, who picked the former Bishop Loughlin and St. John’s star in the first round of the 1987 draft. Jackson won the NBA’s Rookie of the Year award but the Knicks deemed him too slow to be the point guard that could lead them to the NBA title, so in 1995 they traded him to the NBA’s version of Siberia, the Clippers. No wonder Jackson wasn’t overly impressed with the Knicks’ sweep of the Hawks.
“They’re playing much better, with a lot more confidence, thanks to an Atlanta team that looked like they could care less,” Jackson told reporters in Indiana about the Knicks.
Now in order to win the Eastern Conference championship, the Knicks will have to go through Jackson and the Pacers.
“If he’s going to beat us by posting up the whole time he’s out there, then that means Reggie [Miller], Chris Mullin, Rik Smits are not involved,” said Childs. “I think Charlie and I are up to the challenge.”