This is Joe Johnson’s fourth highest-scoring game of the season. Combine that with his clutch shot at the end of regulation to avert overtime and snag the Game 1 Win, and you can only come to one conclusion:
Iso Joe has STEPPED UP for the playoffs. He is EMBRACING THE SPOTLIGHT. He MAKES BIG SHOTS.
That narrative may not persist if Johnson only scores ten points in Game 2 (don’t forget, he only averaged nine points per game this year), but that’s gotta be the narrative now, right? I don’t keep up with the basketball punditry, but this one practically writes itself: Iso Joe saw Rudy Gobert go down, said to himself, “Imma put da team on my back doe”, then went out and won the game for his team because he is a cold-blooded scoring machine.
Also, I’m gonna write a reminder to myself: use post-game interviews for thumbnail images whenever possible.