Isaiah Thomas on comeback win over Grizzlies: ‘This might turn the season around’
A career night from Thomas helped the Celtics rally from a 17-point second half deficit.
The Boston Celtics had been seeking out a signature win all year against a quality opponent. On Tuesday night, they finally got one against the Memphis Grizzlies.
Isaiah Thomas scored a career-high 44 points, helping the visitors rally from a 17-point third-quarter deficit and come away with a 112-109 overtime win.
“[The Grizzlies] were punking us in the first half,” Thomas told CSNNE after the game. “This might turn the season around [for us] for real.”
The potential season-changing victory would not have come to fruition had it not been for the heroics of Thomas in the second half. He scored 36 of his 44 points after the intermission, and did so in an incredibly efficient manner. The 5-foot-9 guard needed just 16 field goal attempts on the evening to score his career-high 44 points, going 10-of-16 from the field, 7-of-10 on 3-point attempts and a perfect 17-of-17 from the free throw line.
Thomas became just the fourth player in the last 30 years to score 44 points with 16 or fewer field goal attempts, according to Basketball-Reference. The All-Star also sealed a place for himself in Celtics franchise history alongside team president Danny Ainge with the performance.
In last 50 yrs the only Celtics guard to score more pts than Isaiah Thomas did tonight is the man who traded for him, current GM Danny Ainge
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) December 21, 2016
“I’m a killer, I’m a killer,” Thomas said of his play after the game. “My team needed me to score, my team needed me to make plays. They got me open, Coach put me in position to be successful, and I just took it from there.”
Thomas is currently averaging a career-high 26.6 points after his latest scoring outburst and remains third in the league in fourth quarter scoring with 8.1 points per game.
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