Written by Chris Forsberg at ESPN.com
When his mesmerizing Game 4 performance was complete, Boston Celtics guard Isaiah Thomas ventured to his postgame news conference, during which a reporter relayed how Chicago Bulls coach Fred Hoiberg had made comments suggesting that part of Thomas’ success stemmed from the fact that referees don’t whistle him for routinely discontinuing his dribble.
Thomas smiled and started, “That’s not the reason why I’m an impossible cover.”
The confident rebuttal was enough to elicit hearty laughter from Thomas’ two young sons, James and Jaiden, seated next to him on the riser. “It’s not that funny,” Thomas told his kids, bringing laughter from reporters.
The Bulls surely were not laughing at the way Thomas took over the final five minutes of the third quarter of Sunday’s Game 4. Thomas either scored or assisted on all 16 points Boston scored over the final 5:12 of the third frame, helping the Celtics re-establish a lead after the Bulls had rallied from 20 points down to briefly pull ahead.
Thomas routinely probed his way to the basket, dribbling through a sea of white jerseys, to either finish a layup in traffic or draw a foul near the hoop. When the defense did build a wall in front of him, Thomas was able to feed teammates for open looks.
“Not one man can guard me,” Thomas said after Boston’s 104-95 triumph at the United Center. “And that’s just the confidence I have, but also my coaching staff and my teammates put me in position to be successful. No matter what other teams are doing, [Coach] Brad [Stevens] figures it out and puts me in the position to be the best player I can be, and my teammates allow me to do that, as well.”
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