BOSTON – The fourth quarter came around and Boston Celtics guard Isaiah Thomas found himself in an unfamiliar place – on the Celtics’ bench.
This is where the best players find themselves when they are on the delivering end of a blowout win which is exactly what happened on Friday night as the Celtics pulled away for a 113-94 win with a decisive fourth quarter showing.
“We can make it a normal thing, hopefully,” said Thomas who had 14 points and eight assists while playing 27 minutes.
Prior to the game, Thomas talked about his teammates being instrumental in him being selected to his first all-star game.
It seemed he went out of his way to reward them by finding teammates often for easy scores with six of his eight assists coming in the first half.
“He’s doing a good job of trying to set other guys up,” said Boston head coach Brad Stevens. “He draws a lot of attention. It was pretty evident he would have a lot of eyes on him, so he had to make the right basketball play.”
However, even more telling about Thomas is how the 5-foot-9 guard is when he’s on the bench.
“He’s probably the loudest guy on the bench when he’s not playing,” Stevens said. “He’s extremely engaged in the game, always talking, cheering for his teammates. It’s a testament to who he is.”
Here are the Stars, Studs and Duds from Friday night’s game.
STARS
Isaiah Thomas
He didn’t have a huge night scoring the ball which is what most of us are accustomed to seeing from Thomas. But there was never a point in the game when he didn’t seem to be in control of what was happening. He finished with 14 points and eight assists without playing a second in the fourth quarter.
Kelly Olynyk
At the rate that Olynyk is improving, it won’t be long before he enters the conversation for the league’s Most Improved Player award. Friday was yet another strong performance by Olynyk who scored 13 of his game high-tying 16 points in the second half. In addition, he had a ridiculously impressive plus/minus of +29.
STUDS
Jonas Jerebko
He was part of an impressive bench performance by Boston, tallying his first double-double of the season with 13 points and 10 rebounds on a perfect 4-for-4 shooting performance from the field.
Evan Turner
It was yet another solid night from Turner who continues to stuff the stats sheet in various categories. Turner had 15 points on 5-for-7 shooting to go with eight assists.
Jared Sullinger
The tone was set early by Sullinger who scored Boston’s first seven points. He finished with his 11 points and 11 rebounds for his 14th double-double this season.
Marcus Smart
His defense has been pretty strong for a couple of weeks now. But lately, it appears his offense is starting to come around, too. He had 16 points and shared game-high scoring honors with Olynyk, on 5-for-9 shooting which included a 3-for-5 showing from 3-point range. He also had four assists, three steals, and a blocked shot.
Nikola Vucevic
It was evident from the game’s outset that limiting Vucevic was a priority for Boston. He finished with 14 points, eight rebounds and four assists despite a pretty heavy dose of double-teams by Boston.
DUDS
Orlando backcourt
Victor Oladipo and Elfrid Payton are considered one of the better up-and-coming backcourts in the NBA, but they both struggled all game against Boston. Oladipo had 11 points while shooting 2-for-6 from the field. And Payton who is the Magic’s playmaker, had 12 points on 6-for-11 shooting but he only had one assist.