Boston Celtics’ Isaiah Thomas, left, defends against Washington Wizards’ John Wall (2) during the first quarter of a second-round NBA playoff series basketball game, Sunday, April, 30, 2017, in Boston.
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Game 2 is set for Tuesday, May 2 at TD Garden.
Boston didn’t get a season high in 3-pointers, the Wizards handed them a franchise high, because they tied their team’s playoff franchise record of 19.
However, the C’s have struggled to reward bettors when favored by five or more points, going 4-9 ATS in their past 13 overall, and a dismal 6-14 ATS in their past 20 games on their home court, according to the OddsShark NBA Database. We gave up a lot of threes, I think 19. On Friday, they were 16-of-39. He returned with a bit more zest, and his performance in Game 3 might have saved Boston’s season.
Thomas had his tooth knocked out by an inadvertent elbow by the Wizards’ Otto Porter and you can actually see the tooth fly out of Thomas’ mouth.
“I’m in continual amazement the last couple of weeks with his ability to function on the basketball court and excel on the basketball court”, Celtics coach Brad Stevens said. But, no, I feel bad for him because he’s going to have to have some pretty significant dental work. “So he’s still in a dentist’s chair and will hopefully be able to come over later in the afternoon, kinda go through what we did, and go from there”. “But he did not practice”.
“It was a team effort”, Thomas said.
“When I found out the news I wanted to give up and quit”, Thomas said in his tearful eulogy Saturday. “I’ve always said pain is temporary”.
“It came down to today to keep us afloat, keep us alive”, Paul said.
Markieff Morris left Game 1 with a sprained left ankle after rolling his ankle badly.
“I’m playing tomorrow. It’s final”, said Morris, who didn’t practice Monday, sitting on the bench getting treatments.
“I think that was a selfless act to be able to understand, obviously, right now things aren’t going well for you, but this guy, he’s been playing really well”.
Despite being overwhelmed with grief, he stayed with the team and played in Games 1 and 2, both losses. “We settled down, we executed on offense and we got stops and that’s how we got back into the game”. They can make shots.
If Boston is going to shoot 40 three-pointers (and that’s something they’ve clearly been going for dating back to the series against Chicago), then Washington has to at least make those shots hard to get off.
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Yes, Horford’s play was just one of the memorable subplots from Game 1. Wall made nine of his 20 shots, but his playmaking was once again on display. “We locked in even more”. The Wizards defense also had no answer for Jae Crowder, who scored a career playoff-high 24 points. Crowder is back; Al Horford had 21 points, nine rebounds, and 10 (!) assists, and he counseled Marcus Smart on the bench; Jaylen Brown was subbed in for defensive purposes in the fourth and also hit a much-needed 3; and Avery Bradley lived up to the honor I have unilaterally awarded him: second-most important player on that team. “He’s one of the biggest winners in this league”. However, the Wizards fell apart defensively without the big man in the lineup.
