One can only wonder what keeps Isaiah Thomas going. He is set to spend his Monday getting dental surgery done to replace one of his front teeth, after having it knocked out of his mouth midway through the first quarter of the Celtics' 2nd round playoff opener in Boston on Sunday, April 30. Then on Tuesday, he returns to TD Garden to face John Wall and the Washington Wizards in their game 2 match up, on what would typically have been his late sister's birthday. Judging by how Thomas played on to score 33 points and dish 9 assists en-route to a sensational Celtics comeback win, it is expected that he will go through the emotions that come with not being able to celebrate Chyna Thomas' born day for the 23rd time, but there isn't a doubt in the world that he's going to show up and play his heart out.
It had actually been less than 24 hours since Thomas was in attendance at Chyna's Saturday funeral when the game tipped off. He had barely gotten any rest following the emotional day, returning to Boston at 4 a.m. only to have to rise early enough to be prepared to put 38 minutes on the floor, come 1 p.m. The fatigue showed, not only for Thomas but for a Celtics team that looked off, going down 16-0 before they got on the board. To make matters worse, Washington had continued to charge forward, spotting 22 points to Boston's 5 when at the 6:33 mark the team, and the 18,624 fans in attendance suffered a scare.
While attempting to deflect a pass headed for Wizards forward Otto Porter, Thomas's face met Porter's elbow. Slow motion replay of the contact showed Thomas squinting, as his tooth went dropping to the ground. Thomas continued to play for another few seconds, scooping the tooth up and getting back on offense, before calling for a halt to the action. Cameras would capture him parting his lips to show the bloody space in his grill, but at no point did appear that he so much as considered leaving the game. He was dead set on getting his team back into the game, and together with the squad, did just that, as Boston outscored Washington 90-58 to head into the fourth quarter with a 15 point advantage, following their dismal start. Injury or not, Thomas appeared to be all smiles as they remained in control to win the game by a score of 123-111.
Source: youtube.com
