Peachtree Hoops: Joe Johnson owns all your Atlanta Hawks 40 point games

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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 â–´	Tm		Opp		GS	MP	FG	FGA	FG%	3P	3PA	3P%	FT	FTA	FT%	PTS
6	Joe Johnson	24-213	G	2006-01-28	ATL	@	CHI	L	1	46	16	25	.640	4	4	1.000	4	4	1.000	40
7	Joe Johnson	24-240	G	2006-02-24	ATL	@	IND	W	1	47	16	24	.667	5	5	1.000	3	3	1.000	40
8	Joe Johnson	24-251	G	2006-03-07	ATL		GSW	W	1	48	14	27	.519	4	10	.400	10	10	1.000	42
9	Joe Johnson	24-263	G	2006-03-19	ATL		ORL	W	1	48	17	24	.708	5	5	1.000	1	2	.500	40
10	Joe Johnson	27-181	G	2008-12-27	ATL		CHI	W	1	44	16	31	.516	4	6	.667	5	6	.833	41
11	Joe Johnson	28-173	G	2009-12-19	ATL	@	CHI	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 â–´	Tm		Opp		GS	MP	FG	FGA	FG%	3P	3PA	3P%	FT	FTA	FT%	PTS
1	Shareef Abdur-Rahim	24-347	F	2001-11-23	ATL		DET	W	1	45	21	30	.700	0	0		8	8	1.000	50
2	Jason Terry	24-122	G	2002-01-15	ATL		DAL	L	1	45	15	23	.652	3	5	.600	13	17	.765	46
3	Jason Terry	24-210	G	2002-04-13	ATL		CLE	W	1	54	16	34	.471	5	12	.417	6	10	.600	43
4	Shareef Abdur-Rahim	26-360	F	2003-12-06	ATL	@	CLE	L	1	43	17	27	.630	0	1	.000	9	10	.900	43
5	Stephen Jackson	25-342	F	2004-03-12	ATL		WAS	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.

Poll

Who is your guess to be the next non-Joe Johnson Hawk to bust 40 points?

• Al Horford
• Josh Smith
• Jamal Crawford
• Marvin Williams
• Another player currently on the team
• Somebody not on the team yet

  10 votes | Results

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