Isaiah Thomas: Blame me for Boston Celtics' loss to Chicago Bulls

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Isaiah Thomas: Blame me for Boston Celtics' loss to Chicago Bulls



Boston Celtics' Isaiah Thomas (4), reacts after turning over the ball during the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Chicago Bulls Thursday, Jan. 7, 2016, in Chicago. Chicago won 101-92. (AP Photo/Paul Beaty)
Print Email Jay King | mjking@masslive.com By Jay King | mjking@masslive.com

on January 08, 2016 at 12:30 AM, updated January 08, 2016 at 12:33 AM



CHICAGO -- After his second straight subpar shooting performance, Isaiah Thomas blamed himself for the Boston Celtics' loss Thursday night. The shooting didn't bother him as much as his response to what he considered poor officiating.

"The no-calls got in my head, honestly," Thomas said after scoring 14 points on 5-for-17 shooting during a 101-92 loss to the Chicago Bulls. "I'm not really bothered by misses because I know it's a long game, and I work on my craft, and they'll fall at some point in time. But this was a frustrating game for me to the sense of I feel like I didn't get any calls.

"It's tough for a player like me when all I do is go to the hole, and I feel like I get hit. I know I'm not going to get a call each and every time down, but it was frustrating. I let that get the best of me. I usually don't do that so I've got to do a better job of controlling my emotions and being a better leader out there because I think they see me complaining, they see me have bad body language, and it wore off on my other teammates. I put that on me."

Thomas registered only one assist, six below his season average, compared to four turnovers. Late in the game, he stumbled and fell on a fast break with a chance to cut the deficit to five points. On the next Celtics possession, he delivered a low pass to Evan Turner, which Turner still could have caught, but fumbled out of bounds.

"I put that (loss) on me," Thomas said. "I didn't give us nothing. At both ends of the floor I had one of my worst games as a pro. And I have to do a better job. I have to do a better job of scoring the basketball, getting my teammates involved and just being an overall better player tonight. That was a bad one."

Thomas wasn't the only Celtics player to struggle from the field (which has become a troubling trend, especially since Avery Bradley's injury). The team shot 35.7 percent from the field, including just 20 percent (5 for 25) from behind the arc. But one day after suggesting the lack of a set rotation has hurt his teammates, Thomas blamed nobody but himself.

"I think that's why I'm upset because I let my emotions get the best of me," he said. "I let my frustration get the best of me, where I was complaining, and then you see other guys complain. I had my head down, you see other guys (do it). I think they look at me for not just leadership vocally, but my body language. As a leader I have to do an overall better job. And I will not let that happen again. I promise that."


Larranaga in charge

Assistant coach Jay Larranaga had an interesting day. Shortly before noon, he learned head coach Brad Stevens had decided to visit a former player in the hospital (more on that here) and would not be available to coach the game. That left Larranaga in charge.

"Brad always says the focus is to win the next game one possession at a time, and that's really how I approached it," he said. "You know, obviously thinking about Brad, wanting to represent him well. And our players, wanting to do right by them. They work really, really hard. They were traveling all over the place. They played last night in a tough game, came out tonight, and I thought they played really, really hard again. So I just wanted to try to do my part to help us get the win."

Despite the loss, Larranaga said he was "really appreciative (the players) took a very business-like approach."

"They didn't seem to me any different than they are for Brad, which I really appreciated," he said. "We came in here to win the game. We were a little bit short but I think we leave here feeling like we can compete with any of the teams in the East."


Stevens still missed

All the players gave Larranaga credit for handling his temporary duties well, but Evan Turner thought the team still missed Stevens. Both he and Larranaga cited how great Stevens is at calling after-timeout plays.

"I think Jay Larranaga did a great job and everything like that. He was very positive and stuff like that. But -- no disrespect to him -- obviously you miss Brad's presence," said Turner. "He's our head coach, that's what we're used to. So obviously that. He's positive and gets on our butt when we need to. But Jay did a great job. Coach Larranaga did a great job."

On a more personal level, Crowder said he reached out to Stevens to see how the coach was dealing with such an emotional day.

"I just didn't know really what to say," Crowder said.



bob
MY NOTE: Ok Isaiah, it WAS your fault. Smart's 3-10 didn't help neither.


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IT is not a starting calber PG, he is a great energizer coming off the bench, as a starter he gets worn down battling all the bigger players and gets exposed on defense. As a 20 mpg sub, he can be effective and his faults won't get exposed so much.

cowens/oldschool wrote:IT is not a starting calber PG, he is a great energizer coming off the bench, as a starter he gets worn down battling all the bigger players and gets exposed on defense. As a 20 mpg sub, he can be effective and his faults won't get exposed so much.

I agree.

I would also agree that Thomas is much better suited as a 'spark plug' type of player off the bench, but this statement about the chicago game "being on me" is a great way to lead a team.

Taking the responsibility for the Chicago game (even though he was not alone in not playing very well) can very often let the rest of the group relax a little bit which may help them as soon as tomorrow. When a team is struggling it always helps to have a veteran step up like Thomas did with this statement.

Lets hope that things start turning around tomorrow