All season Joe Johnson has said he looked forward to the playoffs so the Hawks could “prove everybody wrong.”
That’s everybody who witnessed the Hawks’ surrender to the Magic in the playoffs last spring and said the team lacks mental toughness. The group includes critics who saw essentially the same Hawks players return this season and dismissed them as true Eastern Conference contenders. It includes one-time optimists who dismissed the Hawks as they staggered over the final two months of the season.
Johnson didn’t say so, but he also could have been talking about himself.
He struggled against Orlando for his second consecutive fade in the postseason. Johnson came out of last year’s big NBA free-agent summer with the most expensive contract in the league at $123.7 million, a deal that was roundly criticized. Johnson made his fifth consecutive All-Star game, but had the least productive and efficient of his six seasons with the Hawks.
As it turns out, Johnson gets another crack at the Magic in the playoffs, but he said he doesn’t feel a burden to carry the Hawks.
“Not at all,” Johnson said before the Hawks left for Orlando for Game 1 of their playoff series Saturday night. “In this case, it is not like that. We’ve got equal opportunity around here. We ain’t just depending on one guy. We’ve got two All-Stars [including Al Horford]. It’s not just going to be all on me.
“I don’t get all of the glory when we win, so I don’t get to take all the [blame] when we lose.”
Johnson has felt that heat before. He didn’t like it.
His poor performance in Game 3 against the Magic prompted fans to jeer him and the Hawks, and Johnson responded by telling reporters the team “could care less if [fans] show up or not.” Johnson said his performance was “terrible” and that he took “a lot of heat for this, a lot of criticism.”
That was a rare revealing moment for Johnson, who usually doesn’t acknowledge external pressures or expectations. Even those people close to him often have a hard time figuring out what he’s thinking or feeling.
But lately Hawks coaches and teammates have noticed that Johnson seems restless, as if he can’t wait for the chance to show what he and the Hawks can do in the playoffs.
“You don’t get a lot of him from an emotional side, but just watching the things that he’s doing I can see that his focus is there,” coach Larry Drew said.
“I think he is ‘grind mode,’” forward Josh Smith said. “I know he definitely wants this series and definitely wants to play [well], and it all starts with him. If he looks like he is passionate and really wants it, I think it will trickle down. I think it might be a little bit more emotional for him this postseason.”
Perhaps Johnson feels slighted and disrespected by his critics. If so, Horford said it’s good for the Hawks.
“That’s the mentality we need him to have, and that’s the mentality we all should have is playing with a chip on our shoulder,” Horford said. “That’s important.”
Johnson lately has played with more of an edge, too.
After the Hawks were locked into the No. 5 playoff seed, he said he would use the last four regular-season games to “get in a rhythm.” Sure enough, he played with more pace and got to his sweet spots on the floor regardless of how opponents played him.
Johnson’s spot-up jumpers still weren’t falling — they haven’t all season, really — but there was purposefulness in his movements. He got clean looks on post-ups and his patented floaters and made quicker decisions against double teams.
Those shots won’t be easy to come by against Orlando’s stout defense, which is anchored by center Dwight Howard. But if he can make enough of them it could be an antidote to cure the Hawks’ jump-shot-happy offense.
“I think that this is one where Joe Johnson could have a pretty big series for Atlanta,” said NBA TV analyst Greg Anthony, who played 11 seasons in the NBA. “I’m expecting it. ... I think he can have success in this series. I’ll be interested to see how he responds.”
Anthony said the postseason is a chance for redemption for Johnson because “these are the kind of situations can show a guy’s character.” Johnson probably would never say that’s his goal, even if it is.
There are signs that he’s ready to prove it on the court.
“Speaking for myself, we are all we’ve got in this room, so we can care less what anybody else thinks about us,” Johnson said. “We are going to move forward. We know we are a pretty good team. We have just got to show it.”
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