Atlanta Hawks’ Jalen Johnson After Win Over Spurs

Atlanta Hawks’ Jalen Johnson After Win Over Spurs

And just for you to continue having nights of Career Success just what does it say about your continued Improvement and growth this season um I think it’s just a testament to you know the hard work I did throughout the course of my career um things are slowly just starting to

Click my teammates you know they they help they help move thought that as well so Jaylen uh in the first half today you had like a historic first half especially with you had 10 points seven rebounds six assist five Steals and I think you really spoke to like your

Diverse skill set and how many things you can do on the court so could you just speak to how you’ve been empowered this season because it really looks like fin time to break out and by most metrics the most improved player in the NBA so yeah um like I said it’s a

Testament um it’s a hard work and you know teammates and coaches just put me in the right position and allowing me to have the freedom just to to be me within it so having that that’s important um you know people around you like that um it gives you a clear mind especially

When going down on the cour you not what we thinking um that’s that’s all I really is Jaylen you guys have had some struggles in the second half coach talked about you guys needing to uh improve your focus what areas of growth um do you guys see that you need to do

To kind of get away from these second half lws that you have I really think it’s uh probably those first five minutes of the half um you know a lot of the times you know we get a good lead in the first half we call a timeout um

Because they go on a run we got to just cut cut back on that U stop allowing that to happen um because that gives other team confidence and we seen it tonight they cut the lead I think it was six um at one point so um just

Understanding uh we just need to do it in the second half we can doing in the first half all we want but um yeah jayen Hawks held the Spurs to 34 points in the first half what what was working sort of defensively in the first half and what

Did the Spurs do in the second half to kind of shake threee of that I think what they did in the second half I think it was more on us I think than anything I think we took our foot off the gas and um that’s just what the result was them

Coming back making a lead gaining confidence um you seen they came out uh starting the bench so like I think saw that like it was kind of like just a letup and you know we can’t have that regardless who’s on the floor who’s playing who’s not um so

We just got to be better in that aspect I know you talk about it shouldn’t matter with who was on the floor who’s not but when you’re guarding a guy like Wy how do you try to go about slowing him down I mean he’s still he’s

Still really young so um just kind of being physical with him as much as possible of course you know he’s going to get e buckets he’s 74 whatever he is so um like I said trying to be physical with them um just trying to push him around you know um play more physical

With them yeah’s up Jaylen Rashad Mig game rolling out um speaking of wimy you had a play where you know you kind of made a power move to the bucket and kind of made a screen to him and the crowd uh you know just how was that moment like for you

What do you remember about that play in particular uh remember that okay all right well we could go this way um you know just what was the energy like in Atlanta in that second half you know you guys coming down MLK Day National TV game you know just what

Was the energy like in the building it was great tonight I think for me personally just playing in a lot of the Arenas now I feel like State Farm just separates himself from everybody else just as far as the the energy everybody brings you know just the the crowd

Interactions uh it’s really fun to play here um so especially have a game onk uh it was huge uh especially to get the the W so um that was really good hey jayen uh you had six deals today is that something you want your teammates to look to you to maybe you

Know be as a leader on the defensive end and that you you are setting the tone for the team out there I mean just personally I I just try to you know play hard on defense and then just making the right reads making the right plays um

And I feel like um as a unit were a lot better in that first half tonight um which led to a lot of easy steals for me a lot of the times most of my steals came from one of our guys getting stops and you know the ball is on the ground

And that comes up as my steel but um I think it was just a collective team effort and you know as far as just uh taking pride in our matchups and you know forcing them into tough situations where um you know they lose the ball Jaylen another question about

Tonight an MLK day um what does MLK mean to you in general uhk okay uh that means a lot especially just kind of understanding um just kind of what he what he was about uh the equality uh standing for what he believed in um and I think everybody you know somewhat uh

Kind of applies that to their everyday life you know just trying to stand for what you believe and stand for what’s right most importantly um and the impact he has on us today uh it’s it’s it’s a Mor so it’s everl last and you know we

Just try to honor him and represent that as best as possible last one just Jaylen when things are getting kind of tough out there on the court who are those those voices of leadership amongst the team that say hey everything’s going to be okay like who are those voices on the

Team I think we all say something to each other um there’s not just like one really vocal vocal guy but um I think you know with how we interact with each other I think um we just tell each other like let’s go let’s pick it up um and

Then Coach um he he emphasizes it as well so um and actually Wesley wesle really good at that kind of being that OG veteran guy um you know he you know he’s in the huddles talking to us kind of letting us know let’s let’s

Pick it up let’s pick it up so um yeah West but a lot of us you know we still have that interaction amongst each other