There Is No Defense That Can Stop Isaiah Thomas

Isaiah Thomas is a bedtime story, one about far and away the NBA's most inspirational star, on the most incredible playoff journey we've seen in quite some time. Take Game 2 in the Boston Celtics' second-round series against the Washington Wizards. Despite a mouth so swollen he could barely talk—the work of a four-hour dentist appointment to repair several teeth that had been damaged and knocked out two days prior—the 5'9" point guard scored 53 points in his team's overtime victory. He's the seventh player since 1964 to avalanche a defense with that much aggressiveness in the playoffs; the other six are Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, John Havlicek, Rick Barry, Jerry West, and Allen Iverson—all Hall of Famers.

Nobody else in the league today comes up bigger, more effectively, when it matters most. Thomas roared through the regular season, annihilating opponents in the fourth quarter with an improved pull-up jumper that complemented his collection of impossibly slippery hesitation moves. Russell Westbrook was the only player with more clutch points (defined as the last five minutes when the scoring margin is within five) during the regular season; Thomas finished with 24 fewer points than Oklahoma City's triple-double maven, on exactly 50 fewer shots. His plus-96 in clutch situations led the NBA.

He compiled one of the most impressive portfolios of any bucket-getter in the sport's history, with a flair, consistency, and ferocious relentlessness that solidified his status as an offensive superstar and fringe candidate for Most Valuable Player. And yet, doubt still lingered about whether Thomas could replicate those eruptions in a playoff atmosphere.

Some concern was warranted. Celtics fans rue the moment David Blatt decided to throw Iman Shumpert on Thomas during the 2015 playoffs, and while Thomas managed to average 24.2 points per game during Boston's first-round defeat against the Atlanta Hawks last year, he shot below 40 percent from the floor and 30 percent behind the arc.

The skeptics held that Thomas' diminutive size disallowed success against defenses that had nothing better to do than to clamp down, contest shots, and make him uncomfortable. The believers thought he just needed some help: a release valve in the pick-and-roll, more accurate outside shooting, and maybe even another ball-handler to take away some pressure and free Thomas up on the weak side.

Right now, he has all that and then some.

While the Houston Rockets have been justifiably praised for how they built around James Harden, the pieces the Celtics have placed around Thomas might be even more masterful. He has detonated inside Boston lineups that almost always feature two other speedy, scrappy ball-handlers, a physical wing who spaces the floor, and a center who thinks like a guard. In Game 2 on Tuesday night, Thomas scored 20 points in the fourth quarter and nine points in overtime, routinely tapping his left wrist to remind the audience what time it is, as if anyone watching wasn't already aware.

All these factors have helped motivate Brad Stevens to put the ball in Thomas' hands far more this time around. According to Synergy Sports, 24.5 percent of Thomas' possessions ended as a pick-and-roll ball-handler during last year's playoffs; 19.2 percent were in spot-up situations. Today, 42.4 percent of Thomas' possessions are as a pick-and-roll ball-handler and only 9.0 percent are spotting up. He currently ranks in the 100th percentile when he passes to the roll man; last year he was in the 41st percentile.

That's what Al Horford, and to a lesser extent Kelly Olynyk, does. Boston's prized free-agent acquisition does an exceptional job freeing all Boston's guards, but especially Thomas, off screens. He's wide and sturdy, but also mobile enough to flip a pick or slip into space and do damage against a defense that's trying to catch its breath. More often than not, Horford's individual numbers don't reflect his wide-ranging impact; Thomas's, however, do.

Horford's man has a few options when guarding Thomas off a ball screen, and none of them are great. He can stay high, take away Thomas's shot, and prevent him from splitting the screen or scurrying around the corner (good luck), but that strategy requires a big who's fast enough to recover back to Horford once Thomas's man has reclaimed his position between the ball and the basket. Failure to do so means Horford gets to feast in space.

He can sink back around the free-throw line to take away Horford's roll and Thomas's driving lane, which sounds decent enough until you remember that Horford can pop out behind the three-point line; Thomas, meanwhile, had a higher effective field goal percentage on pull-up jumpers than Steph Curry and Chris Paul this season.

Hedging is illogical thanks to Thomas' shifty quickness, and hard traps force help defenders to rotate off the three-point line against a team that's built to bulldoze from distance. Thomas is quietly one of the league's prettiest mid-range artists, too, so at the end of the day the opposing coach isn't happy regardless of where or how he shoots it.

The Wizards have tried everything. Nothing works. One minute into the fourth quarter of Game 2, they made poor Jason Smith meet Thomas at Olynyk's high screen. Thomas responded by splitting it for a layup. A couple minutes later, Boston sent Marcus Smart up to screen John Wall. Smart's defender, a purple-ankled Markieff Morris, expected Wall to ice Thomas toward the sideline. Thomas promptly went middle.

With his screener's defender on the wrong side, Thomas attacked with his strong hand and collapsed Washington's defense. The normal response here is to kick out to a wide-open three-point shooter. Thomas had Horford in the corner and Avery Bradley on the wing, both directly in his line of vision. Instead, he bumrushed three Wizard defenders at the basket, scored a layup, and drew a foul on Marcin Gortat.

It's almost impossible to describe how Thomas pulled off this particular play, but that's precisely what makes him so special. His decision-making is superb for someone who has the ball as frequently as he does, but that doesn't mean he won't occasionally snatch more than what the defense gives. He's a superstar, after all, and that's what superstars do.

Down the stretch, the Celtics actually went out of their way to hunt for longer defenders like Otto Porter who can't keep up, and Thomas proceeded to torch them at the rim. The Celtics ran him off stagger screens from the corner and even freed him up for an open catch-and-shoot three that kept Boston alive late in the fourth. That particular play was the byproduct of Terry Rozier's emergence as a legitimate threat. He ran a side pick-and-roll with Horford, who quickly sprinted over to set a flair screen on Thomas's man. Gortat was too preoccupied with Rozier to recover quickly enough. Three more points for Boston.

Thomas lit up in overtime, especially after Gortat fouled out. He flooded the paint and was met with little resistance and zero rim protection. There is something to be said about the energy Thomas has so late in games. A big reason for that is how little work he has to do on the other end. Yes, opponents go out of their way to involve Thomas in small-small pick-and-rolls, and that can be taxing, but more often he's guarding the opposing team's least threatening player. Washington wouldn't be wise to consistently involve Kelly Oubre Jr. in their offense just to attack Thomas with isolations and post-ups.

"He has an opportunity where he can rest defensively," Wall said. "They have other guys that can guard for him, and he saves a lot of energy for the offensive end."

It was a performance for the ages, a storybook scenario that was unbelievable until it happened. The 53 points may not be replicable, but the problems Thomas creates with the ball in his hands will last until the day Boston's season finally ends.

Based on how their franchise player is rolling, don't expect that to happen anytime soon.

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