Isaiah Thomas’ foolhardy attempt to stop LeBron James sums up the Eastern Conference Finals

The Celtics went into Game 1 against the Cavaliers believing that they were the exception to the rule. Since no one gave them a chance in the two previous series they won, the same was possible against the Cavaliers.

“They didn’t give us a chance in this series,” Isaiah Thomas said after the Celtics won Game 7 against the Wizards. “They didn’t give us a chance when we were down 2-0 to Chicago. We got the No. 1 seed, they didn’t give us a chance. They don’t ever give us a chance. We just keep going. We don’t care about what others say.”

Here’s what happened in Game 1.

Thomas’ bold attempt to block LeBron James looked like the scene in The Wolf of Wall Street where Leonardo DiCaprio is crawling towards Margot Robbie and she shoves her heels in his face. Thomas summoned all the energy in his body, only to run into a brick wall.

Thomas prevented the and-1, which is commendable, but he almost lost his life in the ill-advised endeavor. James was Ant-Man in his giant form and Thomas was War Machine being smacked away.

It’s easy to call this brave, but I don’t think Thomas knew what bravery really is in these few seconds. Thomas has been underestimated his entire life and has developed a fearlessness because of that. That’s fine. This lack of fear is a huge reason why he’s become a superstar in a league dominated by people much taller and bigger than him.

But bravery isn’t the absence of fear. As Mufasa explained it to Simba, you don’t go looking for trouble. For basketball purposes, I’m going to change the characters in this conversation, replacing Simba with Thomas and Mufasa with Brad Stevens:

Stevens: Isaiah, I’m very disappointed in you.

Thomas: I know.

Stevens: You could have been killed! You deliberately disobeyed me! And what’s worse, you put Kelly Olynyk in danger!

Thomas: I was just trying to be brave like you.

Stevens: Isaiah, I’m only brave when I have to be. Being brave doesn’t mean you go looking for trouble.

Thomas: But you’re not scared of anything.

Stevens: I was today.

Thomas: You were?

Stevens: Yes. I thought I might lose you.

Thomas: Whoah. I guess even coaches get scared, huh?

Stevens: Mmm-hmm.

You can even see Jaylen Brown give off the impression that he would contest the shot before deciding it was a bad idea. After his little leader was stiff-armed in mid-air by a giant, he slowly backed away from the scene of the crime. He knew there was blood on his hands:

Had Brown contested the shot, he could have saved Thomas from endless internet memes. He could have protected the face of the franchise from being treated like an insolent child. Whereas Thomas was foolish, Brown, in his cowardice, watched James do the basketball equivalent of reporting his friend as spam while whistling and walking away.

The other side of Thomas’ sacrifice was him trying to score on James.

It’s time for us to be honest. The biggest sporting cliché is that nothing is impossible. It fits well with the lives of the athletes, who overcome great external obstacles to make it this far. Thomas, of course, has defied an even greater physical disadvantage to achieve greatness.

Because of this, we’ve decided that anything or anyone can be the exception to the rule. That’s how Thomas and the Celtics can say that since they’ve been doubted before, that they can beat James and the Cavaliers in the same manner they beat their other opponents.

No.

This world has laws. It has things that can happen and things that can’t. The Celtics were doubted against the Bulls and the Wizards because they often played badly enough to warrant the disbelief. People didn’t believe, not because they personally didn’t like the Celtics, but because the Celtics didn’t always inspire confidence. They were still the No. 1 seed, after all. No top seed can really be an underdog.

That delusion is not going to work against the Cavaliers. Unless Thomas receives divine assistance like David, Goliath will mush him over and over and knock his headband off until the message if clear.

There is no hope here.