The Boston Celtics are heading back to Atlanta with momentum on their side after capturing Games 3 and 4 at home to tie the series up at two games apiece. Thomas’ sons James and Jaiden joined in on the postgame press conference, and had some opinions to offer about their dad.
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As a matter of fact, when the series opened in Atlanta on April 16, there were hundreds of empty seats with neon yellow shirts on them. Golden State also lost Game 3 in Houston by one point while Curry sat with the ankle injury.
Smart, only the second player since 1992 to register at least 28/8/5 off the bench in an National Basketball Association playoff game, scored 11 consecutive points for the Celtics in the fourth quarter. Brad Stevens may not be a flawless coach, but he rarely draws up play calls as useless as this one.
“His aggression, his competitiveness, his spirit, like, our team needs it”, Stevens said. Byron Scott pulled his hamstring before Game 1 and missed the entire series against Detroit and Magic Johnson then injured his hamstring with the Lakers leading in the second half of Game 2.
Said Smart: “Isaiah did a heck of a job, the way they were guarding him, still being able to penetrate and find guys”. “I’m a better help defender than a one-on-one defender, reading plays where I can get in the key to help my guys or get back to cover my man. That’s why coach likes me out there because I can get back to my man and help out at the same time”. “They responded to being down 2-0 and now we’ve got to go home and respond”. Here, he has a good look at the basket, but Millsap overpowers Terry Rozier in the paint, gets the loose ball, and goes up strong over Jared Sullinger for the basket.
But Smart’s defensive versatility really stole the show as he caused havoc by contesting shots on his various matchups, which caused more stagnation for the Hawks’ offense.
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Budenholzer predicted before the game, “Paul’s going to take a lot of the onus on himself and I think he’ll be great tonight and moving forward”. “I think we maybe pressed a little bit, tried to take them off their game”, Millsap said. They played at a different pace than we did in Game 2 at the start. Smart shot 7-15 from the field and scored 20 points, which is his highest scoring output of the series, and continued his swarming defense which distracted and stunned Atlanta shooters. Plus-24 – Boston outscored the Hawks by 24 points with Smart on the court. Stevens said the team will continue rely on Smart-and Evan Turner-to be a playmaker with Isaiah Thomas playing off the ball, so expect him to play 30-plus minutes and be active on both ends, especially without Avery Bradley (hamstring) available. “You get upset with your kids sometimes, you argue with your kids, you go back and forth”. But Thomas knifed between Horford (who struggled for his five points after being diagnosed with a strained left groin suffered in Game 3) and Millsap with a scooping layup high off the glass. Could Thomas, Boston’s best player, be suspended for Game 4? Backup guard Dennis Schroder, at 22 their youngest player, appeared to have the self-confidence booed out of him by the Boston fans, who vilified him with every touch Sunday. His three-pointer from the corner with a half-minute remaining in OT put Boston up 102-95 and revived memories of the noise when Ray Allen was making the same shots a few postseasons ago.
