Despite playing with a heavy heart following the death of her sister, Chynna, Isaiah Thomas did not miss any game for the Boston Celtics in this year's playoffs thus far.
He even had a career night in Game 2 of their second round series against the Washington Wizards on Tuesday, scoring 53 points and leading his team to a 2-0 lead. The 5-foot-9 guard has not shown any signs of being out of focus, which highly impressive considering everything he's dealing with right now.
That said, the Celtics' President of Basketball Operations, Danny Ainge, has given Thomas a lot of praise for continuing to play hard despite the tragedy he and his family faced. Ainge explained what he has brought to the organization, via Chris Forsberg of ESPN, and even called him an inspiration.
“Well, Isaiah has handled his adversity and his trials with a great deal of inspiration to all those who have been close to him. I’m not surprised by it but, if he didn’t handle it with this kind of inspiration, I would still love him the same. He has been a good example to any of the younger players or any of us older people will inevitably go through these kinds of trials in our lives. He’s been an inspiration. He’s handled it about as well as … right in the middle of the public eye, with cameras on him as he’s crying, in the heat of a playoff battle. And all anybody wants to talk about is how this challenge is going in his life and how he’s dealing with it. Being forced to handle it in the public eye, just magnifies how inspirational he’s been in dealing with it.”
With Thomas showing a lot of courage and resiliency, it has rubbed off on his teammates as they ran to a 2-0 lead against the Wizards prior to their Game 3 loss.
This season saw Thomas establish himself as one of the elite players in the league today and the C's are extremely difficult to beat when he is in the zone. Boston will look to bounce back in Game 4 with all their pride in tow and Isaiah Thomas leading the charge.
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