7.22.2020

IT Scores 12 Straight in Final 4:46

December 5, 2016

PHILADELPHIA - Isaiah Thomas keeps talking about how much he loves the fourth quarter, and by now no one doubts that this is an overzealous hope. The Celtics guard scored 12 straight points in the last 4:46 of the Celtics' narrow 107-106 win over Philadelphia last night at the Wells Fargo Center.
Thomas finished with 37 points.



Dario Saric spun out of the post for a 100-100 tie with 34.6 seconds left, getting in the way of a torrid stretch from Thomas, who had just scored 10 straight Celtics points. But Thomas simply drove on the Croatian out of the subsequent timeout, this time for a 102-100 Celtics lead with 30.9 seconds left.

This time Saric, after having his post-up disrupted by Jae Crowder, passed off to Hollis Thompson, who put his baseline drive off the side of the rim. Jonas Jerebko rebounded and Avery Bradley was fouled down the other end, where he converted only the second of two free throws, to leave the Celtics with a 103-100 lead at 16.3 seconds to go.

Saric lined a deep 3-point attempt off the side of the rim, and Marcus Smart rebounded and was fouled. He also hit both free throws with 8.6 seconds left. Ersan Ilyasova answered with a 3-point pull-up. This time Al Horford was fouled, and iced the game with 1.7 seconds left with two free throws. Ilyasova hit another three, this one meaningless.

Thomas hit two free throws with 4:46 left for a 92-88 lead, and when Saric answered with an up-top bomb, the Celtics guard snapped into fourth-quarter form - first with a 10-foot pull-up, and then with a 3-pointer from the top of the circle after Horford blocked Sergio Rodriguez. Jahlil Okafor got caught out of position when he fouled Thomas off the dribble, resulting in another free throw for a 98-91 lead. Rodriguez, though, hit from downtown with 2:55 left.

The Celtics answered with two empty possessions and paid for it when Okafor posted up Horford.
Thomas, though, drove for his 10th straight point for a 100-96 lead. Saric hit two free throws, and when Thomas was blocked by Okafor, Saric spun out of the post with 34.6 seconds left for a 100-100 tie.

The Celtics have become good at starting the fourth quarter strong, and last night, after Thompson opened the fourth with a lead-taking jumper, the Celtics hit back with an 8-0 run that included back-to-back 3's from Crowder and Horford. Philly cut the 82-76 Celtics lead down to 82-80. But Jerebko, who had kept the ball alive for the Crowder 3-pointer, helped out Crowder the same way again, this time for a layup.

Philly cut the Celtics lead to a point again (84-83), this time on two Okafor free throws. But Thomas, with a wild out-of-bounds mid-air save, looped the ball down court to Jaylen Brown for the tomahawk transition dunk with 7:12 left. Thomas went to the line a minute later, hitting one for an 87-83 lead. Brown, getting some prime stretch minutes, triggered the next link in the run - a Jerebko 3-pointer - by blocking Gerald Henderson. The Celtics now led, 90-83, with 5:48 left.
Nik Stauskas came right back from downtown, and the next time down drove for a finger-roll that cut the C's lead to 90-88 with 5:02 left. The Celtics, despite shooting 48.6 to Philadelphia's 46 percent in the first half, trailed by a 53-45 halftime score. The difference could be found in the Sixers' 9-for-18 3-point performance over the first 24 minutes.

For all the praise Philadelphia coach Brett Brown heaped on the Celtics' 3-point shooting, his own team was the one to heat up, including three treys from point guard Sergio Rodriguez. The Celtics continued to score at a high rate early in the third, though the same was true of Philadelphia. With the help of a Crowder 3-pointer, though, the Celtics cut the margin to five, before Thomas, with a drive for his sixth point of the quarter, trimmed it to three points (65-62).

The C's began to accelerate, including a Bradley 3-pointer followed by three free throws from Thomas for a 68-65 lead after he was fouled attempting a jumper. Back-to-back hoops from Bradley extended the run to 14-2 and the lead to 72-67. Jerebko was then on the good and bad side of a pair of possessions, first hitting a buzzer beater at the top of the circle, but then hitting the floor off a Saric ball fake and pull-up jumper that cut the Celtics lead to 74-72.

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