Brooklyn Nets Stat of the Week: Cam Johnson Is on Fire

The Nets wing is having his best season to date.

Nov 22, 2024; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Brooklyn Nets forward Cameron Johnson (2) drives for a shot past Philadelphia 76ers forward Caleb Martin (16) during the first quarter at Wells Fargo Center. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-Imagn Images / Bill Streicher-Imagn Images

Say it quietly, but Cam Johnson is having the best season of his career.

The 28-year-old scored his Brooklyn Nets career-high for the second consecutive game, dropping 37 points in 36 minutes as his team lost to the Philadelphia 76ers. Johnson was scorching, hitting nine threes (tying his overall career-high) and making franchise history in equaling the record for triples made in a road game.

Look at the numbers, and Johnson's improvement is evident. Two of his highest-scoring games ever took place in the last four days. In the first 297 games of his career, the Nets wing had only crossed the 30+ point mark thrice.

He reflected after the game against the Sixers: "When you play with people like Ben [Simmons] and [Dennis] Schrö[der], they're able to find you. It helps a lot, just knowing that those looks are coming, and ... there will be days I make them, there will be days I miss them. I'll just keep shooting them.”

Johnson’s 19.3 points per game, if they hold, would comfortably be a career-high on amazing 50/42/92 splits. That would also come on his highest volume of threes (8.1 per game at a 42.3% clip) yet. All very impressive for a veteran who didn’t necessarily have much to prove about his game to the rest of the league. 

Cam Johnson last two games:

37 PTS | 9 3P
34 PTS | 6 3P

Sniper. pic.twitter.com/oEu6jDILwo

— StatMuse (@statmuse) November 23, 2024

The UNC product has basically cut out any type of “error” that might exist on the court. Johnson rarely loses the ball — 3.8 assists for every turnover, per NBA Stats — and he's cut down on midrange shots to prioritize threes and improve his efficiency near the basket. 

Johnson is 35-for-46 at the rim to give him a 76% conversion clip, per Cleaning the Glass, which would be his best mark to date in the NBA. He's only taking middies 16% of the time, his lowest tally since the 2020-21 season. Nets head coach Jordi Fernández is also happy with his contributions on the other end. 

“It's not like just [sic] he shoots and scores,” Fernández said pregame in comments picked up by ClutchPoints’ Erik Slater. “He's also doing the right things defensively. His multiple efforts, going vertical, pressuring the ball... all of those things are important for us.” 

The 41-year-old Spaniard also elaborated on Johnson’s usage over his hot stretch. The decision to play more through the Nets wing initially came after Cam Thomas missed Brooklyn’s game against the Charlotte Hornets.

Fernández added: “Not having CT the other day, I told him, 'I'm going to give you the ball more, and the team needs you to do that.' And he was excellent. Sometimes, players show you what they're able to do.. It's not that you decide, and I see that I can give him the ball a lot too.”

The Nets play again on Sunday night when they face the Sacramento Kings. That’s followed by the second leg of a back-to-back on Monday, when Brooklyn travels to the Bay Area to take on the Golden State Warriors.

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