Isaiah Thomas gave his little sister’s eulogy on Saturday. He led the Celtics to playoff victory in a wild game on Sunday. He had massive oral surgery on Monday. He led the Celtics to a playoff victory in a wild game on Tuesday. This guy is simply amazing. He had Kobe freaking Bryant making declarations on Twitter.
All hail Isaiah Thomas
Good morning. We have that and more in Wednesday’s NBA newsletter.
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I.T. dropped 29 of his 53 points in the fourth quarter and overtime of a super competitive, thrilling win over the Wizards to go up 2-0. Afterward, he revealed that Chyna, his sister who died in a tragic car accident a couple of weeks ago, would have turned 23 on Tuesday.
Paul Flannery writes about the moments that sustain Isaiah in this time of immense pain: emotional and physical. Go read it.
Playoff Scores ...
Wizards 119, Celtics 129 (BOS leads 2-0)
Jazz 94, Warriors 106 (GSW leads 1-0)
... And Links Galore
You can tell how competitive a Warriors game is by how many minutes Steph Curry plays in the fourth quarter. If Golden State is worried or it’s a legitimate dogfight, Curry plays seven or eight minutes. If it gets a bit touchy, he plays four or five. On Tuesday in Game 1 against the Jazz, he played 23 seconds in the fourth. Utah’s offense just got squeezed hard by Draymond Green and Kevin Durant. It felt at times that Golden State was playing at 75 percent yet still led by 20. Scary, scary team.
Wednesday’s schedule:
Raptors at Cavaliers, 7 p.m. ET, TNT (CLE leads 1-0)
Rockets at Spurs, 9:30 p.m. ET, TNT (HOU leads 1-0)
Masterpiece of a story from Ethan Strauss on Steph Curry in the wake up of Kevin Durant. So much of chew on here. (And it’s also Ethan’s last story for ESPN.)
Is this what FIBA wanted? A couple of years ago, the international body elected to switch up World Cup and Olympic qualifying, moving games into windows that conflict with most leagues’ seasons, including the NBA. So USA Basketball will be using D-League players to qualifying for the 2019 FIBA World Cup starting next November.
Brandon Roy was shot in Los Angeles this weekend. He was shielding kids at his grandmother’s house.
DraftExpress breaks down the NBA Draft Combine invite list.
LaVar Ball’s Big Baller Brand is giving his son Lonzo Ball a signature shoe. He plans to charge $200 for it. No one in the NBA has a $200 signature shoe right now.
Flanns and I on what we’ve learned from the playoffs so far.
And finally: Charles Barkley’s life-changing churro experience helps bring him closer to San Antonio.
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