Isaiah Thomas scored 53 points in the Boston Celtics’ Game 2 win over the Washington Wizards on Tuesday. It was an incredible follow-up to a 33-point performance that led his team to a win in Game 1.
Isaiah Thomas is making a mockery of the teams that traded him
Thomas has emerged as an All-Star in Boston after Sacramento and Phoenix dealt him for pennies on the dollar.
Greg M. Cooper-USA TODAY Sports
Thomas did it on the day his sister would have been 23 years old. The day before the second round began, he flew across the country and back to deliver the eulogy at her funeral. He scored 53 points with a swollen face, after his front tooth was knocked out during Game 1 and uncomfortably replaced with a false one. He did it against a Wizards team that tried to use every physical advantage to break their opponent.
And he did it after two floundering franchises gave up on him.
Give credit to the Sacramento Kings (a phrase you won’t hear often): They selected the undersized guard dead last in the 2011 NBA draft, and 29 teams wish they could have a redo.
But the Kings gave up on Thomas even as he showed flashes of the player he would become in Boston. In his third and final season in Sacramento, Thomas averaged more than 20 points and six assists per game. The Kings ultimately traded him for pennies on the dollar, signing him to a four-year, $28 million deal then shipping him to the Phoenix Suns for Alex Oriakhi (the No. 57 pick in the 2013 draft) and a $7 million trade exception.
Oriakhi now plays pro ball in Puerto Rico, and Sacramento, in all its glorious dysfunction, let the trade exception expire, unused.
Amazingly, the Suns then let go of Thomas only halfway through his first season in town. Phoenix moved him on the final hectic day of the 2015 trade deadline. He was a key piece of a three-team trade with multiple moving parts:
The Suns received: Marcus Thornton (via Boston), Cleveland’s 2016 first-round pick (via Boston)
The Celtics received: Isaiah Thomas (via Phoenix)
The Pistons received: Tayshaun Prince (via Boston)
Boston originally picked up Cleveland’s 2016 first-rounder in a three-team trade (including Brooklyn) that freed up cap room for the Cavaliers to sign LeBron James. The Cavs shipped Jarrett Jack and Sergey Karasev to the Nets and sent Tyler Zeller and that first-rounder to the Celtics.
Cleveland then sent that pick to Phoenix, which selected a promising young forward Skal Labissiere in last year’s NBA draft at 27th overall.
Now, that trade has the potential to bite Cleveland in the cheeks.
Thomas has emerged as a stud in Boston, earning his second All-Star appearance this year. He averaged 29.8 points per game in the regular season, powering Boston to the best record in the Eastern Conference, ahead of the defending NBA champions.
Thomas has become the most lethal late-game scorer in the league, underscored by 29 points in the fourth quarter and overtime in Game 2 against the Wizards. He has now led the Celtics to six consecutive playoff victories, and is eyeballing a seventh and an eighth in Washington as Boston attempts to complete a series sweep.
And the Kings, Suns, and Cavaliers all helped make it possible.
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