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Joe Johnson: " Right now I’m not sure if everyone has that one common goal – and that is winning."

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Updated: Johnson on Hawks’ woes: ‘We are too self conscious about [who is] scoring’

1:14 pm February 21, 2012, by Chris Vivlamore

Vivlamore reporting from New York City where the Hawks play the Knicks on Wednesday – their first-hand look at the Linsanity that has caused such a stir in this city.

See update on Joe Johnson injury below.

Twice in a span of eight days, the Hawks fell flat on a national television stage. They lost to the Heat 107-87 at home with ESPN in the house. Monday they fell to the Bulls 90-79 on a Presidents Day telecast by the network. Before both games, coach Larry Drew said, in effect, if his team couldn’t get motivated for such a contest there is something wrong.

Judging by the results, something is wrong.

Following Monday’s game, I spoke with Joe Johnson about why the team has a motivation problem and plays with a lack of energy at times. Here are his comments:

“When I look at our team, we are a very talented team, but I [don’t know] whether guys know their roles or not,” Johnson said. “We know the right thing to do. A lot of times we don’t come out and do it. I just think we should all have one agenda, one goal and that is winning the basketball game. Not who scores what, who does what. I think we are too self conscious about [who is] scoring and the little things that really don’t matter. For us to win the game we have to put all of that to the side and help one another on both ends of the floor. If we don’t do that, we are going to continue to struggle to win games. I think we have to put a lot into perspective about how good we want to be as a team or what direction we are headed in or what are our goals. Right now I’m not sure if everyone has that one common goal – and that is winning.

“We’ve had spurts where we’ve played great together. The ball movement has been great. We’ve had times when we haven’t been so great. Times we haven’t been so great, we have struggled as a team. I know it’s noticeable. I think we just have to start getting the ball into the right people’s hands who make plays, who score the basketball and make others better. That’s it.”

I also sought the veteran’s perspective from Jerry Stackhouse on the issues facing the Hawks, who have lost seven of their past 10 games.

“You are going to have those stretches during the course of the season when it seems like you are struggling a little bit, you don’t know when you are ever going to win again,” Stackhouse said. “You have them a couple times. We are going through one right now. It’s not like we are laying down until the [all-star] break, but I think the break will be good for us. We’ve played a lot of games. Guys are probably a little banged up, a little tired. With all that, the trust wanes a little bit. We’ll get it back. All it takes is a good spirited win.”

UPDATE: Johnson, did not travel with the team to New York today and is returning to Atlanta for an MRI on his left knee. He will not play in the next two games (at New York Wednesday, vs. Orlando Thursday). Johnson has been hampered by tendinitis in his left knee and it caused him to leave Monday’s game in the third quarter and not return.

The Hawks expect to get Marvin Williams back. The forward left the team Sunday due to a death in the family and missed Monday’s game.

I will update from tomorrow morning’s shoot-around.

This is a sinking ship ... I'm curious who Joe thinks are the guys who are the scorers who should be getting the ball in their hands and who also make their teammates better.

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he is talking about josh smith. u know it and i know it.

Actually I'm not sure that he is talking about Josh here as Josh has been putting up tremendous numbers [at times] this season and does a good job of getting the ball to his teammates, sometimes trying too hard to do so.

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AHF Grand Master

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Actually I'm not sure that he is talking about Josh here as Josh has been putting up tremendous numbers [at times] this season and does a good job of getting the ball to his teammates, sometimes trying too hard to do so.

I would guess he is talking about Josh. Josh's TS% this season is 48.7%. That ranks 12th on the Hawks this season.

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I would guess he is talking about Josh. Josh's TS% this season is 48.7%. That ranks 12th on the Hawks this season.

It's possible and I know Josh's jumpers have been abysmal but it seems, without checking the stats, that he's done a better job of scoring in the paint this year and taking on a larger scoring burden. Then again this could be piggybacking on the fact that he didn't make a fuss about Josh not making the All-Star team like he probably should have.

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AHF Grand Master

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It's possible and I know Josh's jumpers have been abysmal but it seems, without checking the stats, that he's done a better job of scoring in the paint this year and taking on a larger scoring burden. Then again this could be piggybacking on the fact that he didn't make a fuss about Josh not making the All-Star team like he probably should have.

This year Josh is converting 3.4 fg's at the rim per game. That is the second lowest FG/GM in that area of his career.

This year Josh is converting 0.7 fg's in the 3-9 foot range per game. That is tied for the second lowest of his career.

Josh is converting the second fewest FGs in the 0-9 foot range of any season in his career this year (last year was the lowest).

Conversely, Josh is shooting a career number of FGAs from outside of 15 feet. This is the first season of his entire career where he is taking more shots from 10 feet out and beyond than from inside 10 feet.

Not coincidently, this is by far Josh's least efficient scoring season of his career (.487 TS% compared to career average of .519 TS%). On the plus side, he has been doing a lot in other areas - including career bests in REB% and TOV%.

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MaceCase Grand Master

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It's possible and I know Josh's jumpers have been abysmal but it seems, without checking the stats, that he's done a better job of scoring in the paint this year and taking on a larger scoring burden. Then again this could be piggybacking on the fact that he didn't make a fuss about Josh not making the All-Star team like he probably should have.

He's transitioned into a volume scoring forward who has quite honestly led the team in FG attempts for the past 15 games it seems. The new Harrington/Toine/Reef, if you please. His inside numbers are stagnant from previous seasons in terms of attempts but his outside attempts have skyrocketed (pun) but like I've said in the chat though, I much rather have volume scoring Josh than JJ at this point because it also seems to put Josh in the flow or mindset to impact other statistical categories.

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This year Josh is converting 3.4 fg's at the rim per game. That is the second lowest FG/GM in that area of his career.

This year Josh is converting 0.7 fg's in the 3-9 foot range per game. That is tied for the second lowest of his career.

Josh is converting the second fewest FGs in the 0-9 foot range of any season in his career this year (last year was the lowest).

Conversely, Josh is shooting a career number of FGAs from outside of 15 feet. This is the first season of his entire career where he is taking more shots from 10 feet out and beyond than from inside 10 feet.

Not coincidently, this is by far Josh's least efficient scoring season of his career (.487 TS% compared to career average of .519 TS%). On the plus side, he has been doing a lot in other areas - including career bests in REB% and TOV%.

Interesting ... and thank you for the correction. I had no idea he was having such an awful season as far as shooting / efficiency goes.

I can't watch Lin and those damn Knicks rip this team a new a-hole tonight.

I don't know who it was, perhaps me, that got the idea started that we play the Knicks tonight, but we don't actually play them until tomorrow night. Either way it's going to be an ugly loss I'm quite sure.

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yungsta Enthusiast

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anyone else seen this quote?

]LoHudKnicks J.R. O'Grady

!!! RT @AlexKennedyNBA: Immediately after Magic-Hawks game, ATL players asked for Jeremy Lin updates. Started yelling when told he has 22/5.

it looks like the hawks are caught up in linsanity.

Anyways this was a pretty obvious problem last year too.... No1 wanted to do the dirty work Everyone wanted to be a scorer. We need more tough minded hustle players who is not worried about scoring, their numbers, and accept their roles. We need Joakim Noah/Anderson Varajao/Nick Collison type players badly. I will even take reggie evans ok maybe not.

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