Isaiah Thomas might want to think about copyrighting the phrase "fourth quarter," if he hasn't already. He crossed the 20-point mark in the fourth quarter for the fourth time this season, last night scoring 24 of his 41 points in the final frame of the Celtics' 113-109 win against Detroit at the Garden, their fourth straight.
In addition to leading the league with a 10.3 fourth-quarter scoring average - no player since the NBA started tracking the statistic in 1996 has averaged that much - Thomas finished January with an overall scoring average of 32.9 points. It was the third-highest scoring month in franchise history.
The only two Celtics to average 33 points or better in a month are Larry Bird and Paul Pierce.
So it appears the Celtics guard still has a little work to do, even if he continues to confound opponents. "I didn't do a very good job in the fourth quarter," Detroit coach Stan Van Gundy said. "I should have come up with something better than we were doing. I should have had two guys on him or something. I didn't do a good job, and that's on me. Fourth quarter is on me."
Not that it seems to matter when opponents double-team Thomas or blitz. Maybe someone will try sending three players at him. "Then someone will be open," Thomas, who is about to play in his second NBA All-Star Game, said with a smile. Asked how many different looks he now gets from opponents during the course of a game, Thomas said, "It just depends.
"They gave different looks throughout the whole game. Toward the fourth quarter, they started switching a lot, and we just tried to take advantage of the switch, whether go in the post to Al (Horford) or whoever had a small on them, or give it back to me and let me attack. We did a good job of just executing and figure out what they were doing at the end."
Not that the various strategies seem to matter.
"I don't know. I don't pay attention to it," Thomas said. "I just tried to execute what they're doing to me, figure out if they're doubling or figure out if they're switching, and then attack. I really don't try to pay attention too much to what they're doing. I'm focused on what I need to do to get my team the best basket possible."
And the best available shot nearly wasn't enough.
Thanks to the late offense of Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, who had only 10 points before he scored eight in the last 6:34, in addition to the interior damage of Andre Drummond and Ish Smith's ability to take advantage of Thomas at the other end, the Pistons were within a basket of the lead with one minute left.
Thomas scored the Celtics' last 11 points in the final 2:56, in addition to 22 of their last 23, including three 3-pointers and a three-point play. It was nearly all wasted by two successive mistakes by Marcus Smart - first a missed open layup with 31 seconds left and then a backcourt violation after mishandling a Thomas pass on the next possession. The Celtics were clinging to a two-point lead (109-107) until Thomas finally drew a foul and hit both free throws with 18 seconds left.
Horford preserved the lead with a big block on Reggie Jackson, setting up the Thomas free throws and making another of his teammate's big closing performances stick. "When he got going late, he just got going, so it didn't matter," coach Brad Stevens said. "He was unbelievable. Again."
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