Jalen Johnson is one of the best interior finishers in the game, but the Hawks are taking that into the playoffs with a problem attached. Against the Knicks, Atlanta is carrying a player who has posted 49/35/79 splits on extremely high volume this season and still owns a flaw that opponents can target.
That flaw sits in the paint. Johnson ranks ninth worst in the entire NBA among players with at least 200 field-goal attempts on shots inside the paint that do not come directly under the rim in the restricted area, and he has converted just 41.6 percent of them. For a player putting up those overall numbers, that kind of drop-off is hard to hide when the games tighten.
The Hawks need more than broad scoring volume now because they are preparing to play the Knicks in the playoffs, a familiar opponent with recent history attached. In 2021, Atlanta met the fourth-seeded New York Knicks in a series that showed how quickly a playoff matchup can turn on one star’s ability to break down a defense.
Trae Young did that then with a detailed three-level attack, leaning on his inside game and his patented float shot against larger, slower Knicks defenders. That series is part of the backdrop now, but Johnson’s issue is a more specific one: his paint finishing has become an offensive kryptonite the Hawks have to fix if they want to topple New York.
The numbers make the concern sharper. Johnson’s effective field-goal percentage is 2.5 percent lower than it was two years ago, even though he was taking nearly five fewer attempts per game back then. This season has brought volume and production, but also a reminder that not every shot in his package is holding up equally well.
That is the tension for Atlanta. Johnson can create and finish at a high level, but the Knicks do not need to stop everything to make his weakness matter. They need only to force him into the kind of non-restricted-area paint shots that have become his least reliable work.
Against a playoff opponent that already knows how to make the Hawks uncomfortable, that weakness is the one New York will try to find first.