Key Moment
Isaiah Thomas got it all started during Wednesday night’s fourth quarter. He finished it, too.
What a surprise, right?! Said no one. Ever.
Thomas, who entered the contest ranked second in the league in fourth-quarter scoring, is now the king of the final period in the NBA. He scored 20 points during Wednesday’s final frame to take his fourth-quarter total to 334 points on the season. He surpassed Russell Westbrook, who has scored 327 points in the same amount of fourth quarters (34).
The little guy played as big as ever when the game was on the line, and it started almost immediately when the fourth-quarter clock began to tick. He scored the first points of the final period on a driving, and-one layup that pushed Boston ahead 86-85, marking the team’s first lead since the 6:17 mark of the second quarter.
That was only the beginning, as Thomas caught absolute fire over the final 10-plus minutes of the period. As Brad Stevens stated, “He just went to a different level.” Meanwhile, the Celtics pulled ahead by as many as 12 as they ran off to a 117-108 win.
Thomas made seven field goals during the final quarter including a trio a 3-pointers. Washington called a timeout following one of those treys, while Thomas tapped his left wrist with his right pointer finger and basically stated, “This is my time.”
After the next trey, he turned around and high-fived his close friend, Floyd Mayweather, who was sitting courtside right behind him.
Later, after canning another deep 3 from the right wing, Thomas channeled his inner Michael Jordan, making a similar motion to MJ’s famous “The Shrug” move during the 1992 NBA Finals.
When a player makes The Shrug, it basically means nothing can stop him.
And nothing could.
Thomas was on another level, scoring more points during the final frame than all but 32 players in the NBA average in an entire game.
That’s fourth-quarter dominance, and just the latest evidence that crunch time is Isaiah’s time.
