LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Lakers had a comeback in mind against Tyronn Lue‘s Los Angeles Clippers on Thursday night. LeBron James' squad came back from down 17 points in the first half to trail by just three at halftime with, essentially, their season on the line. Reggie Jackson had other ideas.

The veteran guard put up 36 points, eight rebounds, and nine assists as the Clippers won their fourth straight matchup against the Lakers this season, essentially ending their hopes of climbing to the eighth seed. Ivica Zubac scored 19 points, grabbed nine rebounds, and blocked two shots. Marcus Morris chipped in 14 points,

The Lakers went into the break with all the momentum, scoring 14 straight points to trail 66-63 at the half. Clippers head coach Tyronn Lue didn't have an ounce of concern.

“We just talked about correcting some things, the turnovers, offensive rebounds,” Lue said postgame. “But we came back into the back, and it was probably like eight minutes on the clock, and our assistant coach Beau, he came in and said, ‘Man, the guys are in there dead. Like, nobody’s saying anything.' So I came in there talking stuff to the guys. Got 'em laughing, got 'em fired up. They started laughing, and then our energy got going. But we just did some things to ourselves and I knew we would be better in the third quarter. So, like I said, for those guys to come out and execute the way they did in the third quarter just says a lot about this team.”

The Clippers outscored the Lakers 40-18 in the third quarter, turning a three-point lead into a 30-point lead within seven minutes. Marcus Morris scored all 14 of his points in the third quarter, while Ivica Zubac and Reggie Jackson scored nine points apiece in the quarter.

Jackson credits coach Lue's calm demeanor as the reason they were able to get off to a hot start in the third quarter and put the Lakers away early.

“I think we have the best coach in the league,” Jackson added. “If anything, we didn't say much, we could tell people was probably frustrated with giving up the lead and we knew we were up nearly 20, wanted to keep it going and T-Lue just kind of comes in calm, smiles, and he's like, ‘Hey, we're in a great place.' Like, if we stop turning the ball over, we're in a great place. Like, ‘Alright, if coach ain't mad.' Things are going well, like, we're doing it to ourselves.

“That was the biggest thing we tried to harp on coming out of the second half was to continue to make them play against our half-court defense, make sure we shore up rebounds, not try to give them too many second-chance points, but really stop shooting ourselves in the foot and giving them live-ball turnovers. To make them earn every basket.”

The Clippers shot 14-of-22 from the field in the third quarter and scored 23 consecutive points while the Lakers missed nine consecutive shots.

The moment of the game came with 5:35 remaining in the fourth quarter, when Reggie Jackson crossed over Russell Westbrook while driving to the basket, drawing ooh's and ahh's from the crowd. Westbrook was whistled for the foul for tripping Jackson, and the Clippers point guard responded by yelling, ‘Yeah!' a few times that was heard on the TNT broadcast. Westbrook wasn't a fan, and started jawing back at his former Oklahoma City Thunder teammate.

The Clippers fans in the crowd took over the arena, letting out ‘Reggie! Reggie!' chants. Jackson clearly loved it, because he received the inbounds pass after Westbrook's foul, set up a few picks, and came off a screen by Ivica Zubac to drill a 3-pointer over LeBron James and Russell Westbrook:

“Just get the win, honestly,” Jackson said when asked about the moment. “I got a little chirpy just one play, nothing serious, but being former teammates, maybe a little chirping, not much going on. Felt good. I knew Bron was kind of sitting in drop, I mean, he was up, but he was kind of on his heels and my guys did a great job setting screens all night, so I just wanted to come off and honestly take that look and, yeah, I thought he wanted more than any, especially after the way the energy in the building was going, so, we just wanted to close out the game the right way, we felt like we played well, and just move onto the next.”

Jackson went on to score 12 of his season-high 36 points in the fourth quarter, putting away the Lakers for good:

The Clippers now hold a 5.5-game lead over the Lakers in the Western Conference standings while sitting just one game back of the Minnesota Timberwolves for the seventh seed.

Reggie Jackson and the Clippers will enjoy a few days off before facing the New York Knicks on Sunday night. LA, which now sits at 34-31, will seek a fifth straight win and eighth victory in 10 against New York.