It’s Isaiah Thomas, the Boston Celtics’ diminutive point guard who is averaging 28.3 points per game and has revived his team’s chances in its first-round, best-of-seven series against the Atlanta Hawks.
Advertisement
The Atlanta Hawks finally got Paul Millsap going Sunday after he struggled for most of the first three games, but his 45 points (most by a Hawk in the playoffs since Dominique Wilkins in 1988) weren’t enough.
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.
With that said, big questions still lie ahead for the Celtics, with the biggest one being whether they can pull out a win on the road since the home teams have only won the four games in the series so far.
And unless Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer changes his approach – he went heavily with Millsap in the post in Game 4 – the Celtics know what to expect. He sees that Korver is covered, and as soon as Thomas moves away to cut off a possible pass to Schroder, Millsap plows his way to the basket. In the previous game they didn’t even need a whole lot from Paul George, who is averaging 26.3 points while shooting 44.4% from the field. “But I have to stay positive and lead these guys – and that’s what I’m going to do no matter how I’m shooting the ball”.
Isaiah Thomas had a smile on his face when he arrived at the podium in TD Garden following Boston’s 103-95 Game 4 win over the Atlanta Hawks. “Go get ’em Marcus”. While nobody really held last year’s sweep at the hands of the Cleveland Cavaliers against Stevens, people started to whisper after Boston found themselves in an 0-2 hole against the Hawks. “The biggest lesson you learn from being in a playoff series is focus on the next game”.
With New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, coach Bill Belichick, tight end Rob Gronkowski and running back LeGarrette Blount cheering on the Celtics from courtside, Boston rallied after a hot second-half start by Atlanta.
“Nobody is to blame here”, Myers said.
Golden State leads Houston 3-1 in its first-round series. “Give them credit: We had the opportunity to blow the game out”.
“When we play the lineup with me at (center), I feel we can nearly switch everything”, Jerebko said.
Stevens is more concerned about the Celtics not falling behind 24-3, like they did in the first six minutes of Game 2.
“We just wanted to cut that lead down”, Jerebko said. Determined to not let Thomas beat them, Atlanta was content to leave other Celtics unattended at the three-point line. While the child can play the levels, filling in the letters and solving the puzzles, afterwards the parent can read the unlocked short stories so they can both experience more of Pawcho’s adventures. “You want to exhaust the clock in that situation, you want to take the last shot and I think Jeff just ended up mishandling it a little bit”, Budenholzer said. Jerebko contributed 15 points on 6-of-7 shooting after halftime and Marcus Smart had 13 of his 20 points following the break.
Advertisement
“I don’t think we played necessarily with a lack of effort in Game 2”, said Stevens, “but I thought we didn’t play well in the first five minutes, and then we were fighting and swimming uphill”. And then Teague, having wasted too many seconds, was unable to get off a game-winning three-pointer as he lost his dribble at the buzzer going up against Thomas.
