Joe Johnson should consider getting sick more often.
Playing through a cold, Johnson turned Barclays Center into his own personal shooting gallery Monday night, scoring a season-high 37 points — including 29 points in the third quarter alone — to lead the Nets to a runaway 130-94 victory over the hapless 76ers in front of 16,733 inside Barclays Center.
“I’m taking a little bit of this, and a little bit of that,” Johnson said with a broad smile afterwards. “I’m starting to feel a little better, and this win definitely helps it.”
Johnson entered into a zone few others have Monday night in the third quarter, when every time the ball left his hand it looked destined to settle into the bottom of the basket.
“When he gets going like that,” Deron Williams, who finished with 13 points and 13 assists, said with a smile, “you have to give it to him.”
Williams and the rest of the Nets did over and over again in the third, and Johnson didn’t disappoint. By the time it was over, he had outscored Philadelphia by himself in the quarter, 29-25, while barely missing a shot.
He went 10-for-13 overall in the quarter — including 8-for-10 from 3-point range — to get those 29 points, breaking his previous career-high for points in a quarter of 22, while also setting a new career-high for 3-pointers in a game by going 10-for-14.
Johnson’s eight 3s in the third quarter tied former Bucks guard Michael Redd’s record for most triples in a single quarter.
“It’s just a good feeling,” Johnson said. “You catch the ball with the seams every time, every time it comes out of your hand it’s going in. I can’t really explain it.”
There was no better example than Johnson’s final make of the night, a step-back 3-pointer from the corner while being fouled by James Anderson, sending the crowd into a frenzy after seeing the biggest scoring quarter by a player in Barclays Center’s brief history.
“I got a good look at it,” Johnson said of that final shot. “I got a little separation, got a good look and I let it go.
“My teammates kept telling me, ‘When you catch it, just shoot it,’ and that’s what I was doing.”
Johnson’s performance allowed the Nets, who were playing without center Brook Lopez for the second straight game as he continues to nurse a sprained left ankle, to breeze to a comfortable victory, one in which all five starters — including Mirza Teletovic, who scored 11 points in his first career start — sat out for the entire fourth quarter.
That included Johnson, who was asked by Kidd and prodded by some teammates to stay in the game, though he wanted no part in doing so.
“I was hoping I wouldn’t have to,” he said with a smile. “Guys were telling me I needed [two] more to break the record, but I wasn’t worried about it.
“Most importantly I wanted to keep guys healthy and give some of the other guys a chance to play.”
The frenetic pace at which the Sixers (7-19) play, combined with their horrendous defense, allowed the Nets to get a ton of wide-open looks from all over the floor. The Nets finished the game shooting over 60 percent from the field and exactly 60 percent (21-for-35) from 3-point range, with the 21 makes setting a new franchise record for most 3-pointers in a game.
“The ball was moving, so there were a lot of guys touching the ball,” Nets coach Jason Kidd said. “Guys were making plays for one another.
“When the ball’s moving with that group out there, someone is going to get a wide open shot … we got some great looks, and we finally started knocking down some shots.”
But nobody was knocking down shots like Johnson, who was making them at a rate that few people in the building could ever say they’d seen before.
“I have. Not recently but yes, I have,” said Kevin Garnett, before adding with a smile, “I’ve been in the league since, like, Moses. Not too much I ain’t seen.
“It’s the best feeling in the world. You’re so happy for the guy. You want to see how long it goes. … It was beautiful, man. He had a complete flow. It was beautiful.”