Isaiah Thomas changed by disappointment? Boston Celtics guard showcasing adjustments after sweep to Cleveland Cavaliers

http://www.masslive.com/celtics/index.ssf/2015/10/isaiah_thomas_changed_by_disap.html



Isaiah Thomas changed by disappointment? Boston Celtics guard showcasing adjustments after sweep to Cleveland Cavaliers

Isaiah Thomas Changed Because Of cavaliers Sweep


Did Isaiah Thomas adapt because of the Boston Celtics' playoff loss? Teammate Jae Crowder thinks so.

Print Email Jay King | mjking@masslive.com By Jay King | mjking@masslive.com

on October 01, 2015 at 3:05 PM





WALTHAM -- Getting swept hurt, sure, but the Boston Celtics swore they learned from the playoff series. While they didn't win a game against the Eastern Conference's best team, they took away a pile of lessons, homework for the offseason and beyond.

A few months later, Boston is already talking about ways that experience helped. One result: Through four days of practice, leading scorer Isaiah Thomas has attempted fewer field goals than anybody else on the team, according to head coach Brad Stevens.

"And he has been absolutely unbelievable on offense," Stevens said, "which tells you all that he's doing for everybody else."

While Thomas did not speak to the media before Thursday's practice, teammate Jae Crowder believes the change stemmed from that first-round series against the Cleveland Cavaliers. After Thomas spent a couple of months scorching opponents, the Cavaliers focused on limiting the guard's offense -- and succeeded, forcing him into 33.3-percent shooting while cutting a chunk of his points per game.

During training camp, Crowder said he has noticed a real change in Thomas' approach "because we came to a point last year where Cleveland took away his pick-and-roll and trapped him every time."

"So it made us adjust," Crowder explained. "I've talked to him about it, and our way of adjusting is him trying to find other guys and trying to make a play for him – not necessarily (him) making a play for us each and every time. So we're just trying to pick up where we left off last year with Cleveland making us adjust."

Before finishing the first round with a pair of strong lines, Thomas delivered two uncharacteristic performances, following up a 4-for-17 shooting performance in Game 1 with five points on 2-for-9 shooting in Game 2. For the series the Celtics offense still performed much better with Thomas on the court, but scored about eight points per possession fewer than regular-season lineups with him did, according to NBA.com.

Boston will still need Thomas to pour in points. During his brief time with the Celtics he almost served as a miniature James Harden, giving his team 3-pointers, penetration and a steady stream of free throw attempts just about every night. While Boston finished the regular season on a 20-11 push, lineups with the lefty produced as efficiently as a top-3 offense. He changed so much for the Celtics.

But there will be times when teams try everything to take away Thomas. Head coach Brad Stevens said he has not asked the guard to be more of a facilitator, but wants all his players to make the right play regardless of what that is.

"He's playing very unselfish," Stevens said. "He's making the right read regardless of situation and he's not forcing anything. He really played great point guard on offense the whole time."

The sweep hurt, sure, but disappointment can be one heck of a teacher.


Thomas working on one-legged jumpers

This summer, Thomas said he spent a lot of time studying Steve Nash -- and specifically, the way the two-time MVP finished in unique ways.

Before Thursday's practice, Thomas was working on some Nash-ian shots:


Isaiah Thomas practices a one-legged shot he says he worked on this summer because of Steve Nash.



bob
MY NOTE:  "Through four days of practice, leading scorer Isaiah Thomas has attempted fewer field goals than anybody else on the team, according to head coach Brad Stevens."  - Wow.  This is NOT what I would have expected.  I would have expected Mighty Mite to come out even more insistent on "making it happen".  This could be absolutely eye-popping and will do more to increase the possibility of becoming the starter than any one-legged shots he might make.


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The Green Team from the scrimmage might end up being our starting unit, more or less.

IT4, Smart (Crowder), Jerebko, Amir, KO.

If so, that's what I've been harping on recently. Those guys all played off-the-charts basketball. But who changes 3-4 of their starting 5 right in the middle of a playoff run?

I suspect these guys are going to really get a chance to start as a unit. They have a lot more cohesiveness and chemistry than Bradley, Turner, (Bass), and Zeller. Zeller appeared to have the best advanced stats of those guys, and Bass was probably a huge part of the problem, but that "white team" with newcomer David Lee, Zeller, Turner, Smart, and Bradley might not be the starting 5.

Amir in that Green Team unit obviously helps Olynyk and IT out, and if the White Team was the starting 5, Amir probably would have been in it.

Maybe I'm jumping way ahead of myself, lol.

I was already satisfied and thrilled with that Green Team bench unit dominating the NBA, and being the REAL stars of the show.

Guys like IT, Jerebko, and KO just need a smart coach who isn't afraid to do things differently.