Charting Joe Johnson

I have long asserted that Joe Johnson is an overrated mid-range player, and with the Hawks playing my local Knicks, I've decided to chart his shots for the entire game.

For those who are not familiar with the shot zones...

Inside: Shots in the vicinity of the rim (within the inner circle)
Close: Shots inside of the FT line (15 feet and in)
Mid: Shots taken from 16 feet to the 3pt line.
3pt: Obviously three pointers (though all shots beyond half-court are not counted)

So let's get to tracking!

FIRST QUARTER
Johnson posts up Jared Jeffries, then pulls out and faces up. He drives lane, kicks out to Williams who hits the three. (Assist 1)
Johnson gets a fastbreak pass from Smith but bobbles it, but passes back to the trailing Al Horford for a layup. (Assist 2)
Johnson tries to take Chandler off a screen but loses the ball off his leg and nearly turns it over (recovered by Williams on out of bounds line).
Johnson brings ball up off a rebound and passes to Bibby for a fastbreak three. (Assist 3)
Johnson tries to take Wilson Chandler off the dribble which results in a missed floater in lane (0-1 Close)
Johnson comes off a screen and misses a three in the corner (0-1 3pt)
Johnson sizes up Chandler and blows by him for a dunk (1-1 Inside)

SECOND QUARTER
Johnson tries to post up Hughes but backs out to the top of the arc when Harrington doubles. Hughes picks him up at the top of the key but Johnson drives past him into the lane for another floater, which he puts down this time. (1-2 Close)
Johnson tries to take Hughes off the dribble, pulls back for a mid-range jumper from 15 which bounces hard hard off the back of the rim. (0-1 Mid)
Johnson posts up Hughes at the right FT elbow. He spins on the catch but Harrington rotates over and he misses a contested layup (1-2 Inside). Horford grabs the offensive board and misses a hook shot which is tipped in by Johnson (2-3 Inside)
Horford passes to an open Joe Johnson who misses the catch and shoot three. (0-2 3pt)
Horford gets an offensive board and kicks out to Joe Johnson, who misses another rythmn three pointer (0-3 3pt)
Johnson posts up Chandler but is doubled by Marcus Landry and forced to give it up.
Johnson goes from the paint to the 3pt line but was not followed by Harrington at all and there isn't anyone within 15 feet of him. He misses another catch and shoot three (0-4 3pt)
Chandler gets caught off a screen and stubmles (probably a loose ball foul on Pachulia). Johnson catches the ball at the 3pt elbow, leisurely drives to the FT elbow and misses an uncontested 14 foot jump shot. (1-3 Close)
Johnson tries to take Chandler off the dribble but passes to Mo Evans on the opposing wing, who hits the shot (Assist #4).

Johnson finishes the first half with the following shot chart.
Inside 2-3
Close 1-3
Mid 0-1
3pt 0-4
Total 3-11 (6 pts)

Half of these shots were of the wide open variety. On the plus side he has 4 assists and 0 turnovers. Johnson has literally done nothing of note on defense though, a bit surprising considering he's garnered a defensive reputation of late. The Knicks scored at will in the first half after trailing 11-0 in the first two minutes, and lead 64-52 at the half.

THIRD QUARTER
Johnson faceup on Chandler, makes his move toward the hoop but gets doubled by Lee. JJ passes to the open Zaza who cans an open mid-range shot. (Assist #5)
Johnson.
Johnson gets doubled off a pick and roll with Zaza, passes to Williams who misses the three.
Johnson facesup on Chandler again. Chandler gets screened by Horford and Harrington rotates over. JJ drives into the paint for another floater that rolls in. (2-4 Close)
Pachulia drives and kicks out to JJ at the 3pt line. Pachulia comes over to set a screen but JJ doesn't use it and goes left, driving into the lane for a layup, and draws the foul. Johnson took three steps before the foul even occured so he was bailed out by the refs here. He hits 1-2 FTs.
Johnson dribbles up the court and passes to open Bibby at the top of the 3pt arc, who drains the shot. (Assist #6)
Johnson brings the ball up again but is doubled. Pachulia makes his move on the much smaller Larry Hughes and gets the bucket, and the foul (Assist #7)
Johnson tries to take Chandler off the dribble. He makes his way into the paint and flips the shot at the basket, which misses. (2-5 Close)
Johnson again tries to take Chandler off the dribble. He flips another one hander over him on the wing which bounces in. (3-6 Close)
Johnson once again tries to take Chandler off the dribble, he backs into the post and kicks out to Crawford on the 3pt wing. Crawford drives to the basket for a layup (Assist #8)
Johnson catches Chandler flat footed and rises up for an 18 foot jumper. It hits the front of the rim, hits the top of the glass, and fortunately bounces in. (Mid 1-2)
Johnson posts up Chandler, drives across the lane and is fouled. He hits both FTs.
Johnson drives in and hits a floater to end the 3rd quarter (4-7 Close)

FOURTH QUARTER
Johnson facesup on Jared Jeffries. Toney Douglas does a good job helping as he never quite comes over to fully double, which forces Jeffries to take a contested 20 footer that he misses. (Mid 1-3)
Johnson gets a handoff from Bibby and goes around a screen set by Horford . He loses Jeffries on the screen and drives past Lee for a fadeaway 8 footer on the wing. Swish. (5-8 Close)
Hawks run the same play as before but this time Jeffries gets over the screen. Johnson takes Jeffries off the dribble for a layup (3-4 Inside)
Joe Johnson isolates on Jared Jeffries and drives to the hole. Jeffries falls down and Johnson gets an easy layup. (4-5 Inside)
Johnson misses a catch and shoot three with the shot clock running down. Johnson had to fake Hughes into the air, but Hughes was also behind JJ by the time he was in the act of shooting. He draws back iron (0-5 3pt).
Johnsondrives in on Chandler but gets doubled with the shotclock running down. He forces up a jumper from about 14 feet on the wing. It misses. (5-9 Close)
Johnson drives past Chandler. Lee comes over to help and draw the charge. Johnson squeezes between the defense for a layup (5-6 Inside)
Johnson once again drives in on Chandler and flips up an 10 footer that goes in. (6-10 Close)
Johnson drives on Chandler again and draws the foul. He hits 2 more FTs.

And that's it. Here's Johnson's shot chart for the game.

Inside: 5-6 (10 pts)
Close: 6-10 (12 pts)
Mid: 1-3 (2 pts)
3pt: 0-5 (0 pts)
FT: 5-6 (5 pts)

Johnson was 1-8 on his jumpers but was 11-16 when driving to the hoop. He had 8 assists and 8 rebounds, but wasn't much of presence on defense. He didn't draw too much contact on the offensive end, and you can live with him taking 24 shots to score 29 points. A lot of that is Johnson's fault as he had four good looks from three point range and couldn't put any of them down. The one jumper he did make hit the top of the backboard before falling in, so it's safe to say he was not feeling it from the outside tonight. Johnson did little to dispell my opinion of his perimeter game tonight.