Recently, there has been some complaining about Joe Johnson's inability to score until he realizes his team will lose unless he starts playing. He then realizes that he will lose his bet he has going on with an anonymous betting company under the name Josh Smith and turns his game on. This has frustrated us Hawks fans and we long for the Joe Johnson that carried the Hawks to a 7 game series with the Celtics.

Unfortunately for Blazer fans, Joe Johnson went home, ate some cereal, had a tuna sandwich, took a complex vitamin, read my fanpost, and decided to take it to heart. Tonight, Mr. Johnson entered what appeared to be a typical night. He scored just 9 points in the first half, and the rest of his team couldn't buy a basket (not even Josh Smith with his 11 million dollar contract) however, the Hawks were grabbing every offensive rebound and stayed somewhat in this game.

While the Hawks were struggling to get over the hump, Joe Johnson realized that he had to step it up. After only scoring 9 in the first half, Joe Johnson went on to score 24 points ******In an unrelated story, Al Horford "Boss" scored his first NBA 3 pointer. When asked about it, Horford said it was "Nice"********* anyways, Joe went on to score 24 points in the next 21/2 quarters.

While I take full credit for this inspired effort by Joe with my post about trading Joe to the Cavs for LBJ. Obviously, Joe doesn't want to play with Shaq, and the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (and the Dangerous) Delonte West. Joe took over, making impossible shot, after impossible shot. The only knock on this game was the fact that Joe and Josh Smith (who had his 2nd straight 15+ points, 15+ rebound night) played 44 minutes. However, if you subtract the 5 minute overtime, they really only played 39 minutes, which is very good time management by Coach Woodson, considering the fact that the Hawks trailed for most of the game.

The bottom line is, if Joe Johnson can continue to play at this high of a level, the Hawks have a chance to make some noise in the playoffs. As the tied leader for the best record in the NBA, there is reason the Hawks are the #1 team on both the NBA and ESPN power rankings. Remember if you have been stranded on a desert island, have been locked in a Saw V Jigsaw trap, or have been living in a cave for the last two years, NOW YOU KNOW.