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 24-213 G @ L 1 46 16 25 .640 4 4 1.000 4 4 1.000 40 7 24-240 G @ W 1 47 16 24 .667 5 5 1.000 3 3 1.000 40 8 24-251 G W 1 48 14 27 .519 4 10 .400 10 10 1.000 42 9 24-263 G W 1 48 17 24 .708 5 5 1.000 1 2 .500 40 10 27-181 G W 1 44 16 31 .516 4 6 .667 5 6 .833 41 11 28-173 G @ 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 24-347 F W 1 45 21 30 .700 0 0 8 8 1.000 50 2 24-122 G L 1 45 15 23 .652 3 5 .600 13 17 .765 46 3 24-210 G W 1 54 16 34 .471 5 12 .417 6 10 .600 43 4 26-360 F @ L 1 43 17 27 .630 0 1 .000 9 10 .900 43 5 25-342 F 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.
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