On April 3 against the Sacramento Kings, Timberwolves guard Reggie Jordan provided a jolt of gusto typical of his three-year tenure with the team. Inserted into the game two minutes into the second quarter with the listless Wolves down by three, Jordan attached himself out on the perimeter to Kings super-sub scorer Vernon Maxwell like a second skin. When a Sacramento shot went up, Jordan whirled inside to vie for the rebound, scrambled back up court on offense, crashed the boards to contest for the offensive rebound, then bounded back the other way to blanket Maxwell. This happened over and over again, for seven minutes.
Wolves spurt that proved to be the key to the club's eventual victory.
The underachieving Wolves are down by two when Jordan enters the game with less than a minute to go in the first quarter. Over the next 12 minutes, neither of Dallas's premier outside shooters, Michael Finley or Hubert Davis, scores a point when Jordan is guarding them. Meanwhile Reggie gets four rebounds and two assists, and he even chips in seven points before leaving the game just before halftime with Minnesota enjoying a ten-point lead that eventually results in another Wolves win. Yet over the first 41 games of a Wolves season marred by injuries and disrupted by a constant turnover in personnel, Jordan has logged just 284 minutes. You've got to love him because of what he can do defensively, and that he provides unbelievable energy.