Johnson's lethal catch-and-shoot jumper forces defenses to collapse, opening driving lanes and creating a potent offensive chain reaction.
Atlanta Hawks star Jalen Johnson scored 35 points during Saturday's 125-116 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers and drew MVP chants from the FanDuel 404 Crew late in the fourth quarter. The most important thing he did, according to Hawks coach Quin Snyder, was shooting a catch-and-shoot 3-pointer.
Not because of the points it produced. Because of everything, it forced the 76ers' defense to do afterward.
“His catch-and-shoot threes continue to be a really important part of his game because people have to come up and guard him,” Snyder said. “That gives him a chance to drive the ball. He’s making the right play. Sometimes that right play is throwing a lob to Dyson. Sometimes it’s getting on the rim. Sometimes it’s taking the jumper when people are playing off you. He did all those things, and he did them really efficiently.”
The numbers back up what Snyder is describing. Johnson is averaging 22.7 points, 10.5 rebounds, and 8.0 assists per game this season — career highs across the board. He is attempting 4.5 3-pointers per game and connecting at 34.1%, up from 31.2% a season ago. More telling is his free throw rate: 5.6 attempts per game, also a career high, a direct byproduct of the driving lanes created when defenses are forced to close out on his jumper.
The progression has been steady. Johnson averaged 16.0 points per game in 2023-24 and 18.9 the following season. The jump to 22.7 this year is not a spike — it is the continuation of a development arc that is starting to look like something more sustained.
The chain reaction Snyder describes is what separates Johnson’s current level of play from his earlier career. When defenses sag off him, he pulls up. When they close out hard to take away the jumper, he drives through contact. The result was nine points on 4-of-6 shooting in the fourth quarter alone against Philadelphia, with the Hawks protecting a lead that held through the final buzzer.
“I thought he attacked the rim. He didn’t try to avoid contact — he went through it, and you saw the result,” Snyder said.
Johnson’s own explanation for his fourth-quarter performance was characteristically understated.
“I just tried to match their aggressiveness,” Johnson said. “I felt like I did a good job getting to the line tonight. My teammates were encouraging me to stay aggressive, so I felt like it was a good opportunity to do that.”
Nickeil Alexander-Walker saw it differently from the floor, and his framing gets at what makes Johnson’s current form significant in the context of a playoff race.
“The aggression he played with, the decisiveness getting downhill, not settling — it was very timely when we needed it,” Alexander-Walker said. “He kept rolling, and we were all behind him.”
The timing matters. Atlanta trailed by seven at halftime before winning by nine. The swing did not come from a single play or a single quarter, but Johnson’s willingness to be decisive — shoot the open 3, attack the close-out, get to the line — is what kept the 76ers from ever finding a comfortable second-half rhythm.
With the Hawks now 33-31 and in the middle of a six-game winning streak, Snyder’s emphasis on Johnson’s catch-and-shoot reads less like a coaching point and more like an acknowledgment. Johnson has figured out how to make the defense pay regardless of how it plays him, and the career-best numbers this season are the evidence. The standings are starting to show it, too.