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Isaiah Thomas has Proved He’s More Effective than John Wall

By Michael James

May 12, 2017; Washington, DC, USA; Boston Celtics guard Isaiah Thomas (4) makes a three-point field goal over Washington Wizards guard John Wall (2) in the final minute of the fourth quarter in game six of the second round of the 2017 NBA Playoffs at Verizon Center. The Wizards won 92-91, and tied the series at 3-3. Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports
May 12, 2017; Washington, DC, USA; Boston Celtics guard Isaiah Thomas (4) makes a three-point field goal over Washington Wizards guard John Wall (2) in the final minute of the fourth quarter in game six of the second round of the 2017 NBA Playoffs at Verizon Center. The Wizards won 92-91, and tied the series at 3-3. Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports /
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Isaiah Thomas has shown us how much more effective he is than John Wall in their series against each other.

The Boston Celtics and Washington Wizards will square off in what will be an epic Game 7 showdown in the TD Garden on Monday. It will be the first Game 7 of most of these player’s careers.

The two best players in the series, John Wall and Isaiah Thomas will play each other in their first Game 7 to decide who goes on to play the Cleveland Cavaliers. So far in this series however, Thomas has proved to be the more effective player despite popular belief.

There is no doubt that Wall has been fantastic in this series statistically, but Thomas has been the key to both team’s success. In games that Washington has won, it has typically been because they did a good job of keeping Thomas in check. If they don’t, Thomas torches them to no end.

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The point is that no matter how good Wall has been in every game this series, he hasn’t made the same impact as Thomas.

Let’s look at Game 2. Wall was the best player in the game for about three quarters, but all it took was Thomas taking over in the end for the Celtics to get the win. In Games 3 and 4, Washington had to use three defenders at times to keep Thomas from ending their season. Wall can score as many point as he wants, get as many assists as humanly possible, but if Thomas plays well he’ll lose.

Yes, Thomas played well in Game 6 and still lost thanks to a miraculous Wall triple. During the regular season, Wall shot 8-41(19.5%) on three pointers off of one-two dribbles. So if not for a lucky pull up three going down, the Celtics would be on to the eastern conference finals thanks to Thomas’ productive play with his second unit only producing five total points.

May 7, 2017; Washington, DC, USA; Boston Celtics guard Isaiah Thomas (4) shoots a layup as Washington Wizards guard John Wall (2) defends during the second quarter in game four of the second round of the 2017 NBA Playoffs at Verizon Center. Mandatory Credit: Brad Mills-USA TODAY Sports
May 7, 2017; Washington, DC, USA; Boston Celtics guard Isaiah Thomas (4) shoots a layup as Washington Wizards guard John Wall (2) defends during the second quarter in game four of the second round of the 2017 NBA Playoffs at Verizon Center. Mandatory Credit: Brad Mills-USA TODAY Sports /

There is a case to be made that Wall is a better defensive player than Thomas, which allows him to have a greater all around impact on games. Wall has a 108.1 defensive rating in the series against the Celtics, which is less than stellar.

Wall hasn’t been able to guard Thomas, which has forced the Wizards to over help when Thomas has the ball. Again, Wall’s success is dependent on Thomas.

Wall has had the better series statistically. He is averaging 26 points and 10 assists compared to Thomas’ 27 points and six assists. What is key to keep in mind is that Thomas has had much more defensive attention in all six games of the series than Wall has. Since Game 2 the pressure has been way higher on Thomas, but he still faced double teams and hedges that Wall hasn’t.

Boston hasn’t given Wall as much attention as Washington gives Thomas because Wall is such a good passer. If Wall was so great, why hasn’t he ended this series or forced Brad Stevens to key in on him more? Avery Bradley has a lot to do with that, being the best on ball defender in the NBA, but it’s not like Boston gives Bradley a ton of help on screens and iso’s.

If Thomas had the kind of one on ones Wall does on offense, the series would have been over in five games. That’s because he’s more effective on the floor. This is why Thomas’ player efficiency rating(26.59) ranked 7th in the NBA compared to Wall’s(23.28) 21st ranking.

Next: Boston Celtics Need Marcus Smart to Reappear in Game 7

Game 7 will surely be exciting. The Wizards and Celtics are a neck and neck match up even though there have been multiple blow outs in the series. Thomas will have to play well for the Celtics to win; whether that be as a scorer or distributor. If my point holds, if Thomas controls the flow of the game, it won’t matter what Wall does. It’ll be over before halftime.

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