DJ delivers on mission to impact winning

During their first discussion, David Johnson told Scott Roth he wanted to play somewhere he could impact winning and he sure did that with seven triples and the game winner for the Tasmania JackJumpers on Sunday.

Johnson was recruited by Roth to the JackJumpers as a renowned three-point shooter in the G League including going at 42 per cent last season with the Memphis Hustle, but the University of Louisville wanted to play somewhere he could have a greater impact.

As soon as Roth heard that and looked at his skill set, he knew he wanted him on board at the JackJumpers and while his season was significantly interrupted when he missed 11 games with a calf injury, he's now realising his potential.

And he has been needed to as well particularly with the season-ending knee injury to leading scorer Bryce Hamilton. Over the past four games including when Hamilton went down, Johnson is putting up 23.5 points and 5.8 rebounds, and he exploded on Sunday at MyState Bank Arena.

With sixth position on the line against the New Zealand Breakers, Johnson put up 22 points in the first half alone and then made his seventh three-pointer of the game with 13.5 seconds left to land the match winning blow to move the JackJumpers two games clear in sixth.

Johnson finished with 33 points, four rebounds and two assists in 35 minutes with 7/11 three-point shooting.

Roth saw what he was expecting from him when he was recruited.

"When we did the Zoom interview with him one of the first things he said when we asked what was he looking for, was that he wanted to go somewhere that I could impact winning," Roth said.

"He hadn’t had that opportunity really in the G League and I said that this would be the spot for you, and then his last two or three weeks have been on the rise.

"Now he's told on himself how good he can be and now it's about if we can hit the repeat button and not necessarily to get 33 points, but to play with that kinda demeanour.

"It was a hell of a game by him but I will say we had guys logging monster minutes in the last 48 hours, Majok Deng 42 minutes (on Friday) and he didn’t come out of the game today, that's the most Tyger has had and the grind and the effort for these guys was real and everybody contributed."

Johnson might be ready for the big moments on court, but likes to play things down off it and he was matter of fact after the game saying he delivered what he expects of himself on Sunday including hitting the winning shot.

"I probably would have gotten yelled at it if I didn’t shoot it," Johnson said.

"I mean I expect it of myself every single game so tonight my shot just happened to fall a little bit more than it usually does, but I wasn’t really surprised by it."

One thing Johnson wasn’t playing down was the noise from the JackJumpers fans inside The Nest on Sunday knowing that their season was potentially on the line.

Even in the absence of Hamilton, Ben Ayre, Will Magnay and Sean Macdonald, and coming off an overtime loss in Cairns on Friday night, the JackJumpers dug deep.

Johnson has no doubt their home crowd played a big part in what they produced to beat New Zealand.

"That was the loudest area that I've probably played in the last couple of years that's for sure," Johnson said.

"The atmosphere here is great, the guys are feeding off of it when we're down bodies, and that's what we look for. We've got to create our own energy and the fans have definitely helped out with that."

What stood out above everything for the JackJumpers again on Sunday as they moved two games clear in sixth position was the heart and spirit of the playing group, and the culture that has been built from the ground up from when the club came into existence.

Having been playing in the G League over the past four years since his college career, Johnson has never experienced anything like it and has fully embraced the grit and grind of the JackJumpers, and wanting to 'Defend the Island'.

"When you get here and we're going through the grind and the grit, and all that in the pre-season, it kinda just naturally gravitate towards each other," Johnson said.

"That's where the culture is and you kinda just let that be itself as the season goes on and we start to get closer and closer as times get tougher. I think that's a testament to what coach has built here."

Johnson didn’t necessarily wake up feeling any different than normal ahead of his breakout performance on Sunday, but what he did know was how important the game was in the context of the season for the JackJumpers.

"I mean when I woke up this morning it was another day and another game to prepare for, and a big game for us just like every game that we play, and we knew that we dropped the last one and how important this one was," Johnson said.

"We knew we just have to keep going forward because this one won't mean anything if we don't continue to grind and finish of the work that we've done."