“We went over to my mom’s house”, Horford said. As he left the court, he could be heard muttering expletives at his misfortune.
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The two have history dating to last year’s playoffs when Thomas hit Schroder in the head on a play in Boston’s Game 3 win. “From this point forward I don’t even want to talk about Dennis Schroder because he’s not even on the level I’m trying to be on, and I’m not even focused on him no more”. (23 points), Malcolm Delaney (17 points) and even new Hawk Mike Dunleavy (two fourth-quarter triples) keyed the Hawks’ rally, but in the end the “King in the Fourth” proved to be the difference.
Friday night, he got into a war of words with Atlanta counterpart Dennis Schroder, who accused Thomas after the game of saying things about his mother. This game was encouraging when seen as a whole – coming back from so far down isn’t easy to do against any team – but the Hawks would still be clear underdogs against the Raptors or Celtics (who played without Avery Bradley last night) in a seven-game series. “He deserved it and I’m glad we could get it for him”. “I know there’s a lot of fans out there that appreciated my time here, and I appreciate them”. ‘I just text him after most of his games because they’re all great games. Coach Brad Stevens said Zeller, who has missed seven games, underwent tests and has felt better the past few days.
However, the Atlanta crowd did not greet Horford warmly.
Thomas seems quite annoyed by Schroder and while he says he won’t be focusing on the Hawks guard anymore, there is definitely some bad blood between the two guards.
His contributions likely won’t make the highlight reel – especially after Isaiah Thomas once again took over down the stretch, culminating with a game-winning pull-up jumper with 2.4 seconds remaining – but there’s no doubting Olynyk’s value. “They’re having years that you can’t take away what they’re doing”. Center Al Horford, a fan favorite during his nine seasons in Atlanta, scored 10 points, hauled down six rebounds and handed out six assists for Boston but was booed the entire game by fans still unhappy with his decision to leave the Hawks as a free agent last summer.
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If this were anyone besides Thomas, there might have been an even bigger reaction.
