When Derrick Favors inbounded the ball to Joe Johnson in the final seconds of the first game of the Jazz-Clippers playoff series, Chris Paul immediately began face-guarding Gordon Hayward. The forward is Utah’s best scorer, and Paul thought he was best helping his team send the game into overtime.
Joe Johnson is the NBA’s most prolific game-winning scorer in the past decade
Iso Joe has been doing this for a while.
Robert Hanashiro-USA TODAY Sports
The Clippers forgot about Johnson, the most prolific game-winning scorer in the last decade.
The 35-year-old made them pay by doing what he does best.
Johnson has now nailed eight game-winning buzzer-beaters over the past 10 years, according to ESPN. No other player has more than four. He’s clearly comfortable with the ball in his hands, and even Paul may have forgotten about that.
We take Joe Johnson for granted. He is one of the best scorers ever, having eclipsed the 20,000 point mark last month.
He scored more than 20 points per game with the Hawks in the late 2000s, peaking at 25 in 2007. Throughout his 16-year career, he scored 16 points per game, hitting crunch-time shots for Atlanta, the Brooklyn Nets, Miami Heat briefly, and now the Jazz. He’s been doing this for a while.
The seven-time all-star has been overlooked as he’s aged, but Johnson has the same mentality he always has.
Johnson was never going to pass up that ball on Saturday night. It was classic Iso Joe, and Jamal Crawford was helpless. He played him anticipating a step-back. Instead, Johnson dropped his head and went straight for the cup. The ball hit the rim with time to spare, then it bounced before falling through the net as the backboard lit up.
Another dagger.
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