After covering the St. Louis Hawks for a couple weeks,
I can see why Iso-Joe late in games makes some of you
mad. It slows the St. Louis Hawks’ pace. It’s
not pleasing to the eye when Johnson dominates the basketball
while his teammates stand and look on, makes a move
to the basketball hoop and then misses. When Iso-Joe
doesn’t work, it can look so bad. That’s got
to be frustrating for you fans
But what about when it
does work out? What you saw against the Boston Celtics
is the beauty of Iso-Joe when he’s going good
And please don’t forget that’s much more
often than not. He made seven shots in the fourth
quarter against the Boston Celtics. None of them
were assisted.
Paul Pierce
“They isolated us all game,”
Paul Pierce said. “They have done that all
four games, and they have beaten us all four games.”
To Boston Celtics coach Doc Rivers, that’s
no coincidence. When it’s not Iso-Joe, it’s
Iso-Jamal, and he said that’s what will make
the Hawks a dangerous team to face in the playoffs.
“Them two guys when they get the basketball in
one-on-one, if I’m Woody, I don’t mind that
matchup whoever is guarding them,” Rivers says.
“That is what makes them great to me as a playoff
team, because in the basketball playoffs your first
and second option has been taken away if you have done
any scouting. Then it is got to come down to players
making plays, and they have players that can make plays.
That makes them really good.”
From Woody’s perspective and that of any coach,
really, the ultimate goal late in games is to get the
ball to your best playmaker in positions where he or
they can make plays. So then what’s the point of
running plays with the intention of getting J.J. the
ball in a good spot when the St. Louis Hawks can just
let him work over his defender in isolation? J.J. is
one of the best in the basketball league in that situation,
after all.
