Isaiah Thomas’ Struggles vs. Atlanta Could Foreshadow Postseason
By Liam O'Brien
The Atlanta Hawks took a gritty approach to handling Isaiah Thomas on Monday night. Unfortunately for the Celtics, this game plan worked.
43 games of basketball wizardry concluded on Monday night for Boston Celtics point guard Isaiah Thomas, who witnessed his franchise-record streak of 20-point games conclude in a bitter 114-98 home loss to the Atlanta Hawks.
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While Thomas’ brilliant flaunting of his scoring abilities was destined to come to a close at some point, the it was not a coincidence that it coincided with the Celtics’ facing the team that eliminated them from the first round of the 2016 postseason. The Hawks countered Thomas’ ability to finesse opponents with a physical approach, hedging furiously on screens while leaving Thomas with little breathing room to create scoring opportunities.
The result? A 19-point outing for Thomas, the first time that a team has held the two-time All-Star below the 20-point marker since the Golden State Warriors accomplished the feat in a drubbing of Boston in mid-November. Thomas shot just 4-for-21 from the field, the first occasion since the contest against the Warriors that he had made fewer than six shots from the field. Just one of Thomas’ six three-point attempts sunk through the net, with nary an open look coming his way. Thomas’ looks from beyond the arc were consistently contested, with the 5’9″ guard forced to take a bevy of ugly three-pointers with a hand staring him directly in the face.
Even more troubling was the fact that the Hawks forced seven turnovers out of Thomas., the first time since a January 6 win over the Philadelphia 76ers that he had accumulated more than six. Atlanta used their backcourt tandem of Kent Bazemore and Dennis Schroder to fluster Thomas while forcing the Celtics big men to set screens way outside the arc. This limited Thomas from being able to find suitable looks off of screen-and-rolls as the majority of the picks that he received came at least 25 feet away from the hoop, resulting in him taking multiple ill-advised shots.
Atlanta made it a priority to hedge on these screens with intensity. Not consumed with Al Horford, as the big man garnered just six points, the Hawks sent their big flying at Thomas as soon as the screen was set. This forced Thomas into a variety of predicaments, leading to his excessive turnover rate and placing him in a multitude of uncomfortable scenarios.
In two games against Atlanta this season, Thomas has shot a combined 13-for-42 with 12 turnovers. Last spring, Celtics fans suffered through multiple games of similar defensive tactics deployed by the Hawks. Using a ferocious style of defense, Atlanta held Thomas to 9-of-24 shooting in Game 1, 3-of-12 shooting in Game 2, 4-of-15 shooting in Game 5, and 8-of-21 shooting in Game 6. It is not a coincidence that Boston fell in all four of these games.
With Thomas commanding a sky-high usage rate of 34.3 percent, it is no secret that when the fourth-quarter rolls around, the Celtics are a one-trick pony offensively. In the postseason, opponents will be able to deploy a similar strategy to the Hawks in terms of defending Thomas, attacking him with double teams off of screens while preventing him from garnering room to operate.
There is little doubt that Thomas has overcome defensive game plans centered strictly on him throughout this season. However, defenses are beginning to sell out on Thomas with multiple defenders, punishing him physically while forcing other options on the team to step up in the final stages of contests. The Toronto Raptors utilized this strategy in their 107-97 over Boston last Friday, holding Thomas to 20 points on 6-of-17 shooting.
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Once the playoffs roll around, members of the Celtics not named Thomas will need to step up and become threats to create offense and put points on the board. If not, expect to see teams take a page out of Atlanta’s book.