‘Selfish’ Talk Aside, Joe Johnson and Brooklyn Nets Will Improve
By Michael Woolfson
@Bigwoolf5
Tim Fuller-USA Today Sports
Joe Johnson is typically a very reserved guy with not much to say. Add that to the fact that the Brooklyn Nets started off the season 4-2 and his comments about the team playing selfish basketball seemed out of place.
Maybe the comments were made in order to light a spark under the team as they were heading into a tough three-game west coast road trip that included visits to the Phoenix Suns, Golden State Warriors and the Portland Trail Blazers. While that idea was good in theory, Johnson failed to back up those comments in the first game against the Suns.
In defense of Johnson, the Nets have yet to beat a team that is believed to make the playoffs, besides the Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook-less Oklahoma City Thunder. On top of that they also lost to two teams that are not expected to make the playoffs, so the team’s record at that point wasn’t very impressive.
The issue for Johnson is that when you make a statement like this you have to back up the talk with your play on the court, and in this case that means being unselfish as he said the team needs to be. On Wednesday night in Phoenix, Johnson and the Nets had a great first half moving the ball and being completely unselfish to the tune of 63 points on 70 percent shooting. They led by as many as 21 points, but the second half, and more specifically the fourth quarter, was a disaster.
The team stopped doing what was so successful in the first half and started isolating more often, and the main culprit was Johnson. Again, in defense of Johnson, he is usually extremely good in isolation sets and has a tremendous track record of carrying the team in the fourth quarter. But when you make a comment about the team being too selfish it probably isn’t a great time to have your worst quarter of the season.
In the fourth quarter Johnson shot just 1-for-6 from the field with a huge turnover mixed in there. It would be completely unfair to blame this all on Johnson though, because head coach Lionel Hollins is the one calling plays and probably was calling for the Johnson isolations.
As mentioned before, Johnson has a tremendous track record of being clutch and leading the Nets to victory in the fourth quarter, and most of these clutch baskets come from isolation sets.
The end of NBA games usually come down to isolation plays, and the Nets are lucky enough to have one of the best closers in the game in Johnson. Sometimes in a game it is necessary to take things into your own hands, and Johnson should know that better than anyone.
Overall the Nets made progress as a team on Wednesday with ball movement and playing together; now they just need to put it all together for 48 minutes. One thing they know will probably be better at in the future is Johnson’s fourth quarter performance, because history says so.
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