IT Gets Revenge in Phoenix

February 26, 2015

PHOENIX - Isaiah Thomas can't deny it and, if anything, the Celtics guard is proud of the edge he brought into last night's game against the Phoenix team that traded him last week.



"It meant a lot. It felt good to beat the team that traded you away," Thomas said after the Celtics' 115-110 win over Phoenix - their first since returning from the All-Star break on the third and final game of this western road trip. Thomas' game was all about attitude. The Suns, knowing his intent, ran double-teams at him early.

"They probably thought I was going to try and go off on them, which I was," he said. "But coach said just make the right play." And when Thomas made the right play, like a game-turning four-point play with 1:37 left, he turned around and stared at the Phoenix bench. Emotion, he called it. Nothing personal, although that's the team that signed him to a four-year, $27 million contract and then traded him.

But this wasn't simply a revenge tale. Thomas went for his second straight 21-point game as a Celtic - this time he didn't get ejected - and was only one member of a cast of big playmakers. Avery Bradley, his AAU friend from their days in Tacoma, has long been emerging as a major fourth-quarter option for the Celtics. Bradley had 23 points last night after scoring 20 against the Lakers on Sunday.
During the last two days, this backcourt combination has combined for 85 points. The Celtics haven't had this kind of steady backcourt scoring in recent memory.

"Isaiah is Isaiah," said Bradley. "He makes big plays and lives for games like this. He has confidence in himself, and he's going to be big for this team." But this isn't a matter of offense. It's a matter of two-way play. Bradley's big shot last night - a 3-pointer with 3:13 left for a 100-94 lead - only came after the Celtics guard stripped the ball from Eric Bledsoe and ran back down the floor to find his spot.

"As we always talk about, that 3 has a real good chance of going in when you've just made that hustle play," said Celtics coach Brad Stevens. "Funny how it works." Thomas' four-point play - minted after he was fouled by the mortified Brandon Knight - came immediately after back-to-back 3-pointers from Bledsoe that cut the Celtics lead to a 101-100.

Two possessions later, Thomas jumped in front of P.J. Tucker to steal a pass, and drove down the other end for a 107-100 Celtics lead with 40 seconds left. The Celtics, finally in a position to finish this one out from the free throw line, did just that. They survived such unsightly aspects as a 5-for-20 fourth quarter, which featured a 1-for-13 stretch that included six straight misses by Jae Crowder. But the one make, a Crowder 3-pointer with 5:58 left, quelled another Phoenix run.

"He hit the big one right after missing a few," said Stevens. "It takes a lot more to hit that one than to miss a few in a row." And besides, Crowder's signature hustle plays more than made up for his final 4-for-13 shooting performance.

Or some of those wild cross-court passes he's been known to chuck when hemmed into a corner.
"That's who he is," Stevens said of the forward's rough-hewn style. "We called a couple of his passes on Friday 'Crowders.' Go back and look at the tape. But his hustle plays are always fantastic. We love Jae."

Crowder, asked about the play that bears his name, nodded. "A risky pass, and I'm a risk taker," he said. "It's named after myself." And that style just might be contagious. "We played with really good poise," Stevens said. "You knew that 17-point lead was going to be tested. That they were going to make a run, it was going to cut close."