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They sure do make him sound special, don't they?
JJ= no difference.
J. Johnson is apparently the second coming of either:
Magic or Jordan or in the class of Wade, Kobe and all the others.
Can't wait to see this guy! Have to have the film and video ready! Must gather the children and watch one of the all time great Willis Reed acts.
Somehow I missed him as the difference maker while the Spurs outplayed the Suns in the regular season.
Damm I will be better prepared on Sat.
Will have to watch him exclusively and ignore the Nash's, Amare's, Duncan's, Manu's, Parker's etc. Can't miss a legend in the making?
Can I?
They sure do make him sound special, don't they?
JJ= no difference.
Suns are undefeated with him in the lineup during the playoffs.
I sure hope the Spurs feel the same way as all of you.
'Suns are undefeated with him in the lineup during the playoffs."
Doesn't mean his play caused the undefeatedness, unless he was a 4th qtr game-changer, or buzzer-beating shot maker.
It's not like we've blown these guys out twice -- a small difference can mean alot, especially one that can shoot the three and handle the ball.
Spurs fans are acting pretty damn y. If Joe Johnson is comfortable in his mask, of course he'll make a difference. They'll switch him onto Tony Parker, then Nash can rest on D and guard Bowen. He was hitting 57% from 3 before the injury in the postseason. And he can play back-up point guard so that they don't have to be stuck using Barbosa.
I still think the Spurs will win the series handily. But I don't think you should write off JJ or the Suns quite yet.
Joe Johnson could be make a big difference if only by giving the Suns more confidence.
JJ, when healthy, is a much better player than QRich. I'm not sure that he'll be either physically or mentally prepared to play.
Was he in the Suns lineup the two regular season games we won against Phoenix?
Yes. He didn't play that well against the Spurs in the regular season (14ppg on <40%FG). But that doesn't diminish the fact that he gives the Suns an extra body on the floor, another defender, another shooter, and a backup point guard -- if he is comfortable with the mask.
They showed him on the news playing 2-on-2 today and shooting pretty well, but that doesn't mean anything until he gets on the floor in a real NBA game. A lot of guys play well instantly with the mask (like LeBron) but some take time to adjust, so we'll see.
Yeah, actually he wasn't good at all in the first game that the Spurs won, but he wasn't bad in the second one. 21 pts, I think.
I'm pretty sure the Spurs will come out much more defensively minded @SBC, Pop will insist on it and his people have/will buy into it, off-setting any plus the JJ may bring.
Already, the Suns are shooting 10 less 3G's/game vs Spurs than their season avg . The Spurs have been responsible for that, it will only get worse @SBC, like everything else for the Suns @SBC.
JJ got 9 pts @SBC in the 28 Dec blow-out, which the Suns took on 12 3G's, making but 4.
He was, Jim Jackson wasn't. The second game the Suns really only played five players (Richardson, Johnson, Marion, Nash and Stoudemire). The 3rd doesn't count because Duncan, Manu and Richardson were all out.
I wonder if that 3pt shooting average has anything to do with Johnson not being on the court.
The full Spurs team and the full Suns teams have never faced each other. The first two were before Jackson joined the team. One player doesn't make a difference by himself, but through what the team does when that player is on the court.
Sounds great but if you think about it that's 4 games vs. Memphis. and 1 vs. Mavericks at home.
His ability to guard Parker is what will help the Suns. They have been scoring with such ease for most of the games, I don't see yet another offensive threat leading to the demise of the Spurs in this one.
In the season, teams shot a very good %age of 3Gs vs Spurs. I think the Spurs were way down at 27th or 28th in opp 3G %age.
But opp shot only 10 3G/game vs Spurs, vs league avg of 15.
I can not believe how y Spurs fans are, especially considering last season's disaster after being 2-0 up. We must remember that Phoenix are the best road team in the league and if anybody has the ability to win 2 at SBC it is Phoenix. Plus they are getting a shooter back and Richardson/Marion are "due" for a good game.
Dude, if he only makes a 5 point difference, it'll make all the difference in the world! In case you haven't noticed we really haven't won by a land slide.
WGAF about the fans. It's the Spurs who count. The Spurs are 4-0 vs Suns, 3 Ws @PHX, with Duncan.
The Spurs will win, or beat, themselves this weekend. Spurs haven't been lucky so far, they been excellent, making their own luck.
The guy is the second best three point shooter in the league @ .478 so his abesence certainly affects them.
He does a lot more than that but that alone is enough to stuff that condescending post right down your throat.
If you think he'd have no impact in this series you are sadly mistaken and while no he's not in the class of players you've mentioned in your sarcastic post he is a very good player.
He's easily right there with Marion as their third best player behind Nash and Stoudemire, what would you be saying right now if San Antonio were missing their third best player?
The guys are shooting 57%. There is only 1 rock.
Offensively, if he shoots 52% he will actually drag the team down!!!
Defensively, he may try to stop Parker, but keep in mind how tight they are calling contact on the perimeter this post-season. Roughing up parker on the perimeter may not work this year.
one thing I like is spurs have had plenty of time to get ready for joe
spurs will come out strong. POP CAN SHOW THEM WHAT HAPPENED TO HOUSTON!
nash not playing d would help nash on o alot
joe is like their manu
if spurs were down instead of up and had manu playing his game in this series sat
I bet spur fans would be talking like they could win the series still
I can buy the argument that Johnson will make some difference OFFENSIVELY for the Suns, but I can't buy the notion that he's going to make a dramatic difference defensively -- at least not until I see it. I haven't seen tape of that 2nd game during the regular season in months, but if someone recalls that Johnson defended Parker during that game, it had this effect -- Pop simply went small, forced Nash to defend a bigger scorer, and Manu went absolutely freakin' nuts. IIRC, the Suns shut down Parker pretty well in that 2nd game, but could do nothing with Barry, Manu, and Tim, who scorched them in that 4th Quarter. I guess, even with Johnson, its a pick your poison situation for the Suns.
More pointedly, I also haven't seen tape recently of the 3rd game, but my memory tells me that Parker was tremendous for 3 quarters that night (29 or so) before running out of gas in the 4th and going scoreless. If Johnson had the defensive assignment that night, I'd say that whatever he did in the 2nd game had been solved in the 3rd game.
If I'm D'Antoni and Johnson truly is my defensive stopper, he's not taking Parker -- he's taking Manu, since Manu is several times more explosive than Parker is. Parker's penetration in this series has largely gotten looks for himself. Manu's gets looks for Manu, but it also opens up opportunities for other guys. If I'm D'Antoni, and I want to stifle the Spurs in the half court, my bigger concern is Manu. I'm not sure that Johnson can effectively check Manu, though.
All of that said, if Joe Johnson can line up some 3's and make a couple, he'll be a help to the Suns. I fear, however, for his sake, that the Suns have now made Joe Johnson into some sort of uber-savior: I think Joe Johnson is a tremendous talent and a wonderful ball player, but I'm not sure he's ever truly been that guy.
This series is far from over, and Johnson may prove to be a difference-maker, but I have my doubts.
The Suns haven't made him out to be anything, they haven't even used him as an excuse for their losses.
I'm not saying exactly what impact he may have on this series as it's difficult for more than one reason to say, but to discount him with a arrogant and sarcastic post as the original poster did is just stupid, in a series that's been this close you don't think a three point shooter that was second best in the league at almost fifty percent might make a difference?
That's not even the half of it because of what he can do on the defensive end, and what he does by giving them back a bench with Jim Jackson but as I said earlier, you don't have to over analyze the out of this to figure out he's not someone to be overlooked...
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