Celtics’ Thomas draws inspiration from sister’s death

Maybe there’s a glimmer of hope for them in this series after all.

Isaiah Thomas spent four or five hours in the dentist’s chair having work done on the tooth that was knocked out in Game 1, a day after he was in oral surgery for six hours having it repositioned in his mouth. Chicago’s lead would not last forever.

Some would say the Wizards gave both games away in Boston and that’s good enough to feel confident coming back home.

There were eight technical fouls and three ejections total. Now that the series will be in DC, the Celts won’t be able to lean on their crowd to help swing momentum in these games, which could especially play a factor down the stretch. The game went back and forth with both teams trading baskets until they reached overtime. They are the living reason the Bulls season is over. The Wizards doubled up the Celtics’ scoring in the paint 56-28. It was surprising to see the rugged power forward crumpled to the floor in pain in the second quarter of that game. The reason why is the Celtics are not making many errors. A 14 or 16 point deficit in Boston could be a 25 point deficit in Washington.

When we talked to Iverson last month at his inaugural Roundball Classic, he beamed about the small guards doing big things in the National Basketball Association. Wizards forward Markieff Morris was sore after playing on a sprained left ankle, but Brooks expects him to play Thursday night.

Boston’s usual two standouts are doing well.

HollywoodLifers, who will you be rooting for in this game? En route to the win, John Wall put together a stellar performance. We got down early and fought from behind the rest of the way. After Boston tied the game at 12, the Wizards would go on a 22-0 run to break the game open. He assisted more than shoot, he made 16 assists in the game 1 and 13 assists in the last/game 2. New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, former Celtics star Kevin Garnett, Allen Iverson and boxer Floyd Mayweather have also taken time to send Thomas personal messages. Wall was incredible, scoring 40 points and dishing out 13 assists, almost allowing the Wizards to steal home-court advantage. The Wizards simply were the tougher team Thursday night, and their blowout victory illustrated that. Thomas scored 53 as the Celtics defeated the Wizards 129-119 in overtime, taking a 2-0 lead in the series. This was of no effect in the series, but it was of significant importance to, as Brent Musburger would say, our friends in the desert.

This game is set up perfectly for my slightly edited version of the NBA Playoffs Zig-Zag Theory.

Thomas isn’t anxious about his mouth or his play as the series goes on, saying he struggled to adjust to Washington’s triple-teams early and couldn’t get into a rhythm in shooting 3 of 8 from the floor.