Celtics' Isaiah Thomas is a fourth-quarter killer, but which team is he killing?

[Diggles]

I think we have our answer....case closed Our team is better with him scoring in the 4th like this......  Cheers to watching a fun team fellas. 

[The Oracle]

Yesterday IT scored 19 points in the 4th and the Raptors scored 19 in the 4th.  I think the question in this post has been answered.

Enjoy it everyone.  IT is having the best individual Celtic season since I've been old enough to remember.  (Didn't see the mid-80s.)

The "King of the Fourth" has been nothing short of amazing.  Now all we need is a "Fuhrer of the First" and we will be good.

[chambers]

He's becoming a superstar. His driving/penetration his making offense for this entire squad. He makes excellent decisions with the ball and makes incredibly tough shots.

Surround him with defenders who can shoot and improve each of those positions to guys who can defend AND shoot the 3 AND beat their man off the dribble.

San Antonio is good at this, and IT is like our Parker. Penetrating and finding shooters or finishing/getting to the line at an enormous rate if the opportunity arises.

IT is the reason we are #2 in the East.

[Moranis]

Yesterday IT scored 19 points in the 4th and the Raptors scored 19 in the 4th.  I think the question in this post has been answered.

Enjoy it everyone.  IT is having the best individual Celtic season since I've been old enough to remember.  (Didn't see the mid-80s.)

1 game doesn't answer a question like this.  It was a great 4th quarter for Thomas and the Celtics on the whole in a must win game (Boston needed to beat Toronto at home without DeRozan even missing Bradley/Olynyk). 

[The Oracle]

He's becoming a superstar. His driving/penetration his making offense for this entire squad. He makes excellent decisions with the ball and makes incredibly tough shots.

Surround him with defenders who can shoot and improve each of those positions to guys who can defend AND shoot the 3 AND beat their man off the dribble.

San Antonio is good at this, and IT is like our Parker. Penetrating and finding shooters or finishing/getting to the line at an enormous rate if the opportunity arises.

IT is the reason we are #2 in the East.

I.T. needs to be surrounded with size and length who can do as you say as well as all help defend, rebound and protect the rim.  Bradley is just a bad pairing for I.T. and all the small ball and undersized lineups around him need to disappear.

[GreenEnvy]

I remembered this thread during the 4th last night and couldn't believe someone would take that much time to discredit what IT has been doing.

Regardless of what you think of him, you cannot deny how exciting it is to watch him.

Paired with a defensive stud like Bradley or Smart, they make up for his lack of defensive prowess.

The guy is sensational and must-watch.

[chilidawg]

Killing the Raptors apparently.

[Bobshot]

IT is on a roll right now, and you have to ride with him. Sooner or later, he's going to need some help. Bradley will probably help him out on offense. I think he's been more or less covering for Bradley's offense while he's been out of the lineup.

That was a big win against the Raptors, who are the hurdle they must jump over to get better.They didn't have Derozen, but the Celtics didn't have Bradley. I think if the they could get another big who can rebound up front, they might be all right. Somebody like Nurkic--for a bench player and a non Nets #1.

[clintonwalker]

This post honestly makes me embarrassed to be a fan of the same team as you. He's obviously a def liability but to say he's killing our team with his 4th quarter scoring is so stupid it's hard to believe the original  poster is even a Celtics fan. Just wrong and embarrassing and the same kind of bad logic that has a labeled as a place players don't want to go.

[Boris Badenov]

If you look at the team since we got our full unit back starting in game 13 (Crowder and Horford playing with IT), and you discard the 4 games IT has sat since then, this is what we've done:

Record: 24-9, 0.727 win%

Losses: 6 to above-.500 teams (SAS, OKC, HOU, CLE, TOR, WAS), 3 to below-.500 teams (DET, NYK, POR).

And during that stretch IT is averaging 31ppg and 6.4apg, on 53% from 2pt, 40% from 3pt, and 93% from FT.

He's the best player on a team with one of the best records in the league during that time span. (Does anyone know how to find the exact numbers on that?)

If you carve up his numbers different ways into smaller samples, there will be times when he looks better on a given dimension, and times when he looks worse. But that's the overall picture.

And, one final quibble: this is based on minutes he's on-court vs. off-court in 4th quarters. Aren't the games when he's off-court likely to be Celtics blowouts? So wouldn't it be completely expected that the team would be blowing out its opponents when he's off the court? He almost surely spends more 4th quarter time on the court against better opponents. Just my guess.

[Stig]

James Harden doesn't play defence and he's leading the MVP race. Sometimes if your offence is at certain level you are allowed to not play D, Dirk didn't play much defence when he wins the champion in 2011, neither was Nash when he won 2 MVPs. Actually Stephen Curry isn't that good a defence player either.

Teams in NBA are scoring more and more points in recent seasons so you can argue defence is deflating overall.

[liam]

James Harden doesn't play defence and he's leading the MVP race. Sometimes if your offence is at certain level you are allowed to not play D, Dirk didn't play much defence when he wins the champion in 2011, neither was Nash when he won 2 MVPs. Actually Stephen Curry isn't that good a defence player either.

Teams in NBA are scoring more and more points in recent seasons so you can argue defence is deflating overall.

Defense is deflating because of the way they call the games. I've said it before but Bird would average 40 points a game in todays NBA, easy.

[Stig]

thinking about it, if KD hasn't left OKC, IT is probably leading the league in scoring...

[TheTruthFot18]

thinking about it, if KD hasn't left OKC, IT is probably leading the league in scoring...

Geez. Never even crossed my mind.