Prescription for banged up Celtics: Let Isaiah Thomas go to town

Things didn't look good for the Boston Celtics coming into Game 3 against the Atlanta Hawks Friday night. Their excellent two-way guard, Avery Bradley, is doubtful for the rest of the series. Their floor-spacing big, Kelly Olynyk, was out for the second straight game.

So, aside from the raucous home crowd at TD Garden and coach Brad Stevens' adjustment of starting Evan Turner and giving forward Jonas Jerebko his first NBA start in over three years, the forecast was probably a vise-grip 3-0 series lead for Atlanta.

Enter Isaiah Thomas.

The diminutive final selection of the 2011 draft posted a career-high 42 points in Boston's 111-103 victory, a pivotal win to put the series at 2-1 going into Sunday's Game 4. Thomas shot 50 percent from the field, almost 42 percent from deep and was 13-of-15 at the line.

"Can't get anymore green," Stevens told reporters postgame, not referring to the Celtics colors, but the light Thomas was given to fire away. "He can shoot when he's open and when he thinks he's open."

It's traditionally been a mixed bag when Thomas starts sniping. The Celtics were 9-8 this season in games when he took more than 20 shots, and 6-4 in contests when he scored over 30 points. But given the back-to-the-wall circumstances, Stevens and the Celts will take it.

"I'm rolling with it," the coach said. "I think everyone in that locker room thinks the same thing."

Yet the guard credited Stevens' insertion of Jerebko as a key decision in terms of spacing. The credit is correct: A player as lightning-quick as the listed-at-5-foot-8 Thomas only needs a sliver to operate. Even Al Horford's split-second hesitation with Jerebko drifting into the corner helped Thomas finish here.

Much has been made about the Celtics not having a superstar player. Yet if the team's current identity is that of a scrappy ensemble cast, then Thomas is the superstar of scrappiness. He even whacked Hawks guard Dennis Schroder at one point in the game, a contest that at some points appeared poised to devolve into an NBA slugfest from the 1990s.

"I didn't mean to hit him in the head," Thomas told reporters. "He got mad. He was talking but it's playoff basketball. That’s what it's about. I'm not going to back down from anybody. And he knows that."