Boston Celtics: Isaiah Thomas is making his own name in NBA Playoffs

Boston Celtics star Isaiah Thomas may always be compared to Detroit Pistons legend Isiah Thomas, but he’s making his own name in the 2017 NBA Playoffs.

Boston Celtics point guard Isaiah Thomas is doing his best to carve his name into franchise history. He led Boston to the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference by producing at Bird-like levels and becoming the resident King of the Fourth Quarter.

During the 2017 NBA Playoffs, Thomas has both warmed our hearts as a national public and begun to escape the shadow of his legendary predecessor.

Whether fair or foul, Thomas is going to be compared to the Hall of Famer of the—different spelling—same name. For those unfamiliar, Isiah Thomas is one of the best players and point guards in the history of the sport.

Due to the fact that the two have mistakable names, cynical older fans occasionally dismiss the newer generation’s success based off of nostalgia alone.

Even the new wave of fans and analysts have found ways to downplay Thomas’ value to the Celtics.

A player’s value to an NBA team can be determined in any number of ways. One can use basic statistics, advanced metrics, the eye test, or actual game film, but it all comes down to weighing the good against the bad.

Throughout the 2016-17 NBA regular season, analysts have been struggling to determine Thomas’ true value.

On defense, Thomas borders on being a liability with his 5’9″ stature and his inconsistently active hands. His effort has been steady throughout the 2017 NBA Playoffs, but it’s an inherent issue that he’s struggled to overcome.

The name of the game is winning and losing, however, and few point guards have helped their team win more games in 2016-17 than Thomas.

Boston entered the 2015 NBA Trade Deadline at 20-31. It then traded for Thomas and proceeded to go 20-11 the rest of the way, thus finishing at 40-42 and making an improbable postseason appearance.

The Celtics then went 48-34 with Thomas as the primary scorer and playmaker, thus bringing the record to 68-45 with Thomas after going 20-31 before his arrival.

In 2016-17, Thomas appeared in 76 games and led Boston to a record of 51-25. The Celtics went 2-4 in the six games he didn’t play, and while that’s a small sample size, it’s a fair reflection of the reality in Beantown.

Boston averaged 100.3 points per game without Thomas, with an outlier of 117 points that elevated the average from 97.0 in the other five games.

While advanced metrics may do a wonderful job of establishing a player’s value, Thomas is one of the players who breaks the mold. He’s a shining example of what may not show up on the advanced metrics, but is nothing short of invaluable to winning basketball.

Say what you will about the rest of his game, but Thomas is the type of scorer who can take over a game in the fourth quarter—and the only player on the Celtics who can consistently create their own offense.

Thomas finished the 2016-17 season at No. 3 in the NBA in scoring with 28.9 points per game on a slash line of .463/.379/.909. That includes an average of 9.8 points per fourth quarter on a slash line of .467/.376/.893.

In other words: the 5’9″ Thomas not only scored at an elite level, but ranked No. 2 in the Association in fourth quarter scoring and maintained outstanding efficiency.

Intriguing as all that may be, it wasn’t until the 2017 NBA Playoffs that his critics truly began to disappear. For all that he’d done thus far—including 42 and 28-point games during postseason wins in 2016—he hadn’t yet led Boston to a postseason series victory.

Thomas and the Celtics responded by playing beautifully as a team, thus dispelling the myth that he’s only an isolation scorer, en route to a 4-2 victory over the Chicago Bulls in the first round of the 2017 NBA Playoffs.

In the second round, Thomas has looked the part of one of the best players in the Association.

Matched up against fellow projected All-NBA point guard John Wall, Thomas has been explosive. He recorded 33 points and nine assists on 11-of-23 shooting during Game 1, blowing the game open with 12 points in what proved to be a decisive third quarter.

In Game 2, Thomas dug deep and put forth one of the greatest postseason performances in NBA history—and there’s no hyperbole in that statement.

On what would have been his slain sister’s 23rd birthday, Thomas was iconic. He put Boston on his back by scoring a career-high 53 points, including 29 points between the fourth quarter and overtime alone.

Battling grief and physical pain—Thomas spent between four and five hours in a dentist’s chair for oral surgery—Thomas played like the other Isiah Thomas.

And just like that, it became clear that we as critics had been wrong; Zeke’s shadow isn’t cast over IT.

Isaiah Thomas isn’t the next Isiah Thomas, even if he does have the same name pronunciation and a similar uphill battle as an undersized playmaker. Instead, he’s one of the faces of the new generation as a player whose heart is as big as scouts wanted his wingspan to be.

With 53 unforgettable points against John Wall and the Washington Wizards, Thomas solidified his place in Boston Celtics and NBA history.

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No matter what happens from hereon out, Thomas will never be remembered as a shining example of why sports matter.

Isaiah Thomas is no longer the other Isiah Thomas. He’s making his own name.