St. John’s basketball: JaKarr Sampson continues to thrive in playoffs

Former St. John’s basketball standout JaKarr Sampson is continuing to thrive in the NBA Playoffs despite his team’s struggles to pick up a victory.

The Indiana Pacers have their hands full with the Miami Heat in the First Round of the Eastern Conference Playoffs but former Red Storm standout JaKarr Sampson continues to be sensational for the Pacers.

Following his Game One performance in which he posted ten points, three rebounds, one assist, and one steal on 5-of-6 shooting from the field, he had just as good of an encore outing.

Sampson went for eight points, six rebounds, two assists, and one steal against the Heat in Game Two on 4-of-6 shooting in once again 17 minutes off the bench.

However, the Pacers were yet again unable to get a win against Miami, falling 109-100, as the Heat lead the series 2-0.

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JaKarr Sampson has thrived in his role with the Pacers throughout the restarted regular season and into the playoffs as St. John’s head coach Mike Anderson even shared his thoughts on the play of the former Red Storm standout on Twitter on Thursday afternoon.

Eligible to be an unrestricted free agent this offseason, Sampson is proving his worth not with just Indiana but in the NBA as a whole while being calm, cool, and collected in his first ever postseason.

As all of the starters for the Pacers reached at least 12 points, the eight from Sampson off the bench was the highest mark of Indiana reserve players.

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In the regular season Sampson averaged 4.6 points and 2.6 rebounds per game but those averages have been bumped up to 9.0 points and 4.5 rebounds per game in the postseason.

JaKarr Sampson will look for his first ever playoff victory in Game Three between the Indiana Pacers and Miami Heat which will be on Saturday, August 22 at 3:30pm EST and the game can be seen on TNT.