1. Russell Westbrook • OKC 37.4
2. LeBron James • CLE 32.0
3. Stephen Curry • GSW 28.8
4. James Harden • HOU 28.5
5. Paul George • IND 28.0
6. Damian Lillard • POR 27.8
7. Kawhi Leonard • SAS 27.7
8. John Wall • WAS 27.2
9. Kevin Durant • GSW 26.9
10. Chris Paul • LAC 25.3
Isaiah wasn't even a top 5 playoff scorer among point guards.
The current leader in playoffs games played is your Boston Celtics with 18 games.
Isaiah dealt with, in order: the death of his sister, oral surgery, injury that may require surgery
What was he dealing with versus Atlanta the year before or Cleveland two years ago?
Two years ago Brad was still foolishly bringing Thomas off the bench. Further, the team was barely a playoff roster with no other offensive weapons allowing Cleveland (at that point still fully healthy and eventual ECF winners) to double-team Thomas constantly. Nevertheless, other than one game in which the particular ref crew would not give him a foul call to save their own lives, he averaged 17.5/7 coming off the bench. He scored over 20 in 3 of the 4 games.
Last year, against the ATL series, while Thomas was now a starter, and the roster had somewhat better scorers, it still had a dearth of shooters. Just 5 of the rotation players on that roster shot above 28.2% on threes that year. Three of those five were injured and one of those five was Thomas himself. That means there was exactly and only one other player (Jonas) who presented _any_ threat from outside the arc on that team. So ATL again just swarmed Thomas constantly -- even doubling him when he was OFF the ball. Nevertheless, he still averaged 24.2 points and 5 assists and carried this Stevens-era team to it's first ever playoff game wins.
This year, despite again being constantly double teamed and playing through multiple injuries (not to mention dealing with the weight of off-court personal tragedy), he averaged 23.3 points and 6.7 assists through 15 games. He was fantastically efficient, with a scoring efficiency of 56.3% despite a heavy USG of 31.3% and while assisting 33.3% of his 'mates shots.
For his playoff career (25 games), Thomas averages an excellent 22.6 points & 6.3 assists per game on 54.5% scoring efficiency with a low 13.1% TOV rate.
Sample size is too small and context matters.
Isaiah is what's too small, and the context is that when defenses ramp up in the playoffs he gets shut down.
I mean, do you believe that Dennis Schroeder is a better scorer than Isaiah Thomas?
of course not.
The evidence suggests that Schroder is not susceptible to getting shut down in the playoffs like Isaiah is. Schroder may well be a better playoff scorer. The samples are small, but that's the playoffs, you don't get a chance to have big samples come playoff time, you have to put up or get shut up in the games you have.
What a load of baloney. In last year's BOS vs ATL series, Shroeder was held to a miserable 41.1% shooting percentage and a frighteningly inefficient 46.7% scoring efficiency.
He had a very good 6 games this year, but overall, his playoff career numbers are nothing special. In 34 career playoff games, his scoring efficiency is just 52.4%. And he's had the benefit of other, primary scorers on the floor every season. If anybody on that roster is getting double teamed, it's Millsap, not Dennis freaking Shroeder.
