Jaylen Johnson’s reaction to winning Player of the Week

Atlanta The Hawks were without Tree Young for the month of November as he recovers from a sprained MCL, but that hasn’t been a problem for the team. With Young out, the Hawks are 7-2 and playing good basketball on both sides of the ball. Although it was a collective group effort, the only bright spot was Jalen Johnson.

In the Hawks’ recent trip to the West Coast, they went 4-0 and Johnson was the catalyst for their strong play, averaging 24.0 points, 12.0 rebounds, 9.3 assists and 2.5 steals. Those numbers earned him the Eastern Conference Player of the Week, the first of his career.

Before their matchup against the Detroit Pistons, Johnson talked about winning the award and how the job was not done.

“Just realizing that hard work takes you to places you can’t imagine and gives you opportunities you could never see … I’m very grateful and very appreciative of the award, but there’s still a lot of work to do,” Johnson said, via Jamela Johnson of ATLHawksFan.

Johnson has shown over the past few years that he can reach this level with his game, and with Young, he was able to show what he can do when he has control of the offense.

Jaylen Johnson is taking the next step in his game

Johnson had some big games over the past few weeks, including a triple-double against the Utah Jazz where he finished with 31 points, 18 rebounds, 14 assists and seven steals. The day after the game, Johnson talked about what the reason was for his recent offensive surge.

“I think the main thing is to do whatever it takes to win,” Johnson said. “Whatever the game asks me to do, I take pride in it. Whether it’s passing, scoring, defending, whatever it looks like. It might look different every night, but the main thing is I just want to help my team win.”

Johnson also shared why the Hawks have been playing well lately.

“We take the film session very seriously, and more importantly, we translate those film sessions into our next game and execute our game plans to the best of our ability,” Johnson said. “I think that’s a big thing for us, and we just have to keep building on each win and focus on one game at a time.”

The Hawks were one of the best defensive teams during this stretch, and the ball moved on offense, allowing them easy shots. If they can continue to do that while Young is gone, they should be able to stay competitive until the end of the month.