Joe Johnson owns all your Atlanta Hawks 40 point games

by Jason Walker on Jan 12, 2011 10:41 AM EST

In "celebration" of Nick Young's 45 points on 22 shots performance in a defensively optional tilt Tuesday night, I took a look (on basketball-reference, of course) at when the last time someone random scored 40 for the Hawks.

To my genuine non-surprise, I found the following:

Rk	Player	Age	Pos	Date ▴	Tm		Opp		GS	MP	FG	FGA	FG%	3P	3PA	3P%	FT	FTA	FT%	PTS
6	Joe Johnson	24-213	G	2006-01-28	ATL	@	CHI	L	1	46	16	25	.640	4	4	1.000	4	4	1.000	40
7	Joe Johnson	24-240	G	2006-02-24	ATL	@	IND	W	1	47	16	24	.667	5	5	1.000	3	3	1.000	40
8	Joe Johnson	24-251	G	2006-03-07	ATL		GSW	W	1	48	14	27	.519	4	10	.400	10	10	1.000	42
9	Joe Johnson	24-263	G	2006-03-19	ATL		ORL	W	1	48	17	24	.708	5	5	1.000	1	2	.500	40
10	Joe Johnson	27-181	G	2008-12-27	ATL		CHI	W	1	44	16	31	.516	4	6	.667	5	6	.833	41
11	Joe Johnson	28-173	G	2009-12-19	ATL	@	CHI	L	1	48	16	32	.500	5	7	.714	3	4	.750	40

Not very random since 2004-2005, eh? It's all Joe, all the time. Makes sense since: A) He was the only capable scorer for many of the past 7 seasons. B) One must gobble up possessions to achieve such heights, usually, and Johnson was/is the alpha dog in terms of possession usage, so it would be difficult for another player to sneak in there unless Joe was injured and that player took his possessions.

You have to go back to the waning days of the glory that was the Terry Stotts regime to find the last Hawk since Joe to score 40. Any guesses? Ok, here are the games since 2000 that have featured a Hawk scoring 40.

Rk	Player	Age	Pos	Date ▴	Tm		Opp		GS	MP	FG	FGA	FG%	3P	3PA	3P%	FT	FTA	FT%	PTS
1	Shareef Abdur-Rahim	24-347	F	2001-11-23	ATL		DET	W	1	45	21	30	.700	0	0		8	8	1.000	50
2	Jason Terry	24-122	G	2002-01-15	ATL		DAL	L	1	45	15	23	.652	3	5	.600	13	17	.765	46
3	Jason Terry	24-210	G	2002-04-13	ATL		CLE	W	1	54	16	34	.471	5	12	.417	6	10	.600	43
4	Shareef Abdur-Rahim	26-360	F	2003-12-06	ATL	@	CLE	L	1	43	17	27	.630	0	1	.000	9	10	.900	43
5	Stephen Jackson	25-342	F	2004-03-12	ATL		WAS	W	1	45	14	24	.583	4	5	.800	10	10	1.000	42

Some classic games in there: Shareef's Thankgiving 50 point goodness against the Pistons, JT's duel with Dirk, the overtime home closer against the Cavs, where Jet dropped a 3 coming off an Ira Newble pick to send the game into OT, and wrapping up with Stephen Jackson becoming a fantasy basketball hero in the last weeks of the last days of Terry Stotts.

Exit Question/Poll: Who is your guess to be the next non-Joe Johnson Hawk to bust 40 points? Bonus points for when it will happen.

Poll

Who is your guess to be the next non-Joe Johnson Hawk to bust 40 points?

Al Horford

17 votes

Josh Smith

33 votes

Jamal Crawford

115 votes

Marvin Williams

2 votes

Another player currently on the team

3 votes

Somebody not on the team yet

15 votes

185 votes | Poll has closed

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Comments

Very interesting topic

I so wanted to go with J-Smoove, but I don’t see any player ever reaching that mark so long as JJ remains on the team, so I went with “Somebody not on the team yet”. JC1 might actually have the best chance with JJ on the team, but until he has a contract extension in place with the team, I can’t justify voting that way.

"You could spend the next fifteen seconds of your life watching a man and a tiger scream together, or you could be an idiot."
Fact.

by Jesse28 on Jan 12, 2011 11:03 AM EST reply actions

I can't see Smith ever getting hot enough for 40...

Jamal is the only one currently on the team I can figure going off like that. otherwise, not on the roster for me.

http://sportsandgrits.blogspot.com/

by Mr. Sanchez on Jan 12, 2011 1:53 PM EST up reply actions

Josh Can get enough easy shots to get to the number.

@KrisPTHoops

by Kris Willis on Jan 12, 2011 2:18 PM EST up reply actions

I guess I've just never thought of Josh

as a volume scorer type player. Maybe if his shot is really on, I can see it. I just don’t see him taking enough shot attempts to get there.

http://sportsandgrits.blogspot.com/

by Mr. Sanchez on Jan 12, 2011 3:10 PM EST up reply actions

I voted Josh Smith

He has come close a couple of times and I think he is the guy to break through. Been waiting on one of those explosions from Jamal for the last two seasons but it hasn’t come yet.

@KrisPTHoops

by Kris Willis on Jan 12, 2011 11:03 AM EST reply actions

+1

I keep waiting on another 50 pt game from Jamal, but it just doesn’t seem like he has one in him anymore. I went with Josh as well

by frootbooty on Jan 12, 2011 11:27 AM EST up reply actions

Look at the minutes JJ played

Unless those games were OT games, he played the entire 48 in three of them and 47 in a fourth

by frootbooty on Jan 12, 2011 11:28 AM EST reply actions

JC2

I don’t think Josh, Al, or Marvin will ever get enough attempts in a game to score 40 unless one of them makes an insane percentage of a medium number of shots in some game. Jamal is certainly a possibility, but I’m going to go out on a limb and pick Jordan Crawford who I think will take over Jamal’s role starting next year. He has the right mix of jacking up shots regardless of outcome and the ability to go on a ridiculous tear of converting to pull off a 40 point game.

by redwards95 on Jan 12, 2011 11:31 AM EST reply actions

Shareef really helped my fantasy team that day

But, to the exit question: Jamal is more likely than any other hawk besides Joe, but we don’t have a player getting to the line enough or taking and making a whole lot of shots enough to get even 30 points. And actually that’s not a bad thing. Look at the celtics

Atlanta will win a championship....someday

by maxxj3 on Jan 12, 2011 2:21 PM EST reply actions

I think you hit the nail on the head here

When the offense is diverse then there are a lot less chances of a player rolling up big numbers. Of course on the flip side of that an argument can be made that the Hawks don’t always keep going to a player once he is rolling. Al Horford could have had a few 35+ games in my opinion this season. At any rate, wins are what is most important.

@KrisPTHoops

by Kris Willis on Jan 12, 2011 3:31 PM EST up reply actions