WASHINGTON — Atlanta Hawks coach Quinn Snyder believes fifth-year forward Jalen Johnson is still a work in progress. If he’s right, it’s a terrifying prospect for opponents.
Johnson continued his emergence with his second triple-double in two nights Saturday, finishing with 30 points, 12 rebounds and 12 assists in a 131-116 win over the Washington Wizards.
It was his fourth of a season in which every one of those performances has been needed as the Hawks manage without four-time All-Star Trae Young, who has been out since late October with a sprained right MCL.
Johnson is averaging 23.8 points, 10.5 rebounds and 7.8 assists, all significant improvements from a 2024-25 campaign that was easily his best.
“It’s reflective of a guy that’s done a lot of work that we need to make a lot of plays for us,” Snyder said of Johnson. “The triple-doubles, like the statistics, are great. But he wants to win and there’s more there. He can continue to become more efficient, because we need him to be that.”
Both Friday and Saturday’s performances were historic.
In Friday’s 134-133 home loss to Denver, he recorded the second-fastest triple-double in NBA history, reaching the threshold in only 16:44. (Denver’s Nikola Jokic holds the record of 14 minutes, 33 seconds.)
Saturday, he became only the second Hawks player ever with triple-doubles on both ends of a back-to-back, after Bob Sura did it on April 9 and 10, 2004.
“Yesterday was cool, but tonight was more important because we got the win,” Johnson said. “So I think that’s what makes it better. But it was just a great group effort and like I said before, it’s just a product of my teammates hitting shots and everybody making the game much easier for me.”
