Boston and Washington were neck-and-neck through nearly three quarters of play Monday night in our nation’s Capital. The Celtics, however, used the final three minutes of the third period to take a commanding lead it would never relinquish.
Less than three minutes remained in the third period when Kelly Olynyk splashed home one of his two 3-pointers on the night to bump Boston’s lead from five up to eight. He, Marcus Smart, Evan Turner and Isaiah Thomas would go on to rack up a 12-3 run overall to end the third.
Olynyk added three free throws after his trey, while Smart and Turner each dropped in a finger roll layup. Thomas, meanwhile, connected on a step-back jumper from 18 feet to close out the quarter’s scoring and give Boston an 84-70 lead.
During that stretch, the Wizards couldn’t get anything going when the ball was in their hands. They shot just 1-for-4 from the field and 0-for-2 from the free-throw line, all while committing two turnovers.
Remember, this all happened in less than three minutes. Boston caught fire, Washington went cold, and the C’s ran away with a breezy win for the second time in as many nights.
Nothing about Monday night’s game in Washington, D.C. came as a surprise. Not the fact that the Boston Celtics crushed the Washington Wizards (they’ve now done that three times this season during a season sweep), and certainly not that Isaiah Thomas was the best player on the court.
Thomas was a dominant force when these teams met on Jan. 16 in this very arena, when the C’s won 119-117. That night, he scored 32 points on 6-of-14 shooting.
The likely All-Star didn’t quite match that scoring total Monday night, but that’s because he enjoyed this win from the sideline for the entire fourth quarter.
Thomas dropped a game-high 23 points to go along with a team-high nine assists. He was incredibly efficient, nailing eight of his 14 shots, including two of his three 3s, and also connected on all five of his free throws.
There’s no doubt that the 5-foot-9 sparkplug would have notched a double-double that included 30-plus points had this game been competitive in the fourth. However, he did his work early on and was able to enjoy the final quarter while rooting on his teammates.
None of that should come as a surprise to anyone.
Isaiah Thomas on winning back-to-back games during a crazy travel schedule caused by Winter Storm Jonas.
