Hawks’ Jalen Johnson sets new career high after nearly choking away 76ers game in epic fashion

Atlanta Hawks forward Jalen Johnson had quite a night on Sunday against the Philadelphia 76ers at Xfinity Mobile Arena in Philadelphia.

The former Duke Blue Devils star, who’s been shining in the absence of injured guard Trae Young, found himself in the middle of a wild ending in regulation before the game went to overtime. Johnson made two free throws with 1:01 left in the fourth quarter to extend Atlanta’s lead to six points. He made another pair of freebies to make it an eight-point advantage for Atlanta with 49.8 seconds on the clock.

Philly later cut that lead down to four before Johnson had another trip to the foul line with 21.5 seconds left. He made the first one and missed the next one. Sixers forward Dominick Barlow then scored a two-point bucket and drew a shooting foul from Johnson. Barlow missed the free-throw, but Paul George outmuscled Johnson for the rebound before firing a pass to Tyrese Maxey, who sank the game-tying 3-pointer that ultimately forced overtime.

TYRESE MAXEY SENDS IT TO OVERTIME

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Johnson, however, atoned for those shortcomings with a strong performance in the two overtimes. After Maxey missed two free throw attempts that would iced the game in favor of Philly late in the first OT, Johnson sank two shots from the charity stripe to tie the game and add five more minutes into the contest. He made two huge 3-pointers in the second overtime; the first one gave Atlanta a three-point lead and the second extended his team’s advantage to six points with 1:25 to go.

When it was all said and done on the court, the Hawks came away with a 142-34 victory on the strength of Johnson’s career-high 41 points. Nickeil Alexander-Walker added 34 points, while Dyson Daniels had 17.

Johnson and the 13-8 Hawks will have to play through some tired legs, as they have a short turnaround. They are scheduled to face the East-leading Detroit Pistons at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit this Monday evening.

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