C’s history blessin’
Now NBA’s all-time winningest franchise
For one night, anyway, and maybe even until the Lakers are good again, the Celtics are the winningest franchise in NBA history.
Before the tipoff, the Celts and the Lakers were tied with 3,252 all-time wins apiece.
That these two teams actually were playing each other was a bizarre but entertaining circumstance.
Not long after the Celtics had minted win No. 3,253 by a score of 113-107 over the Lakers, co-owner Steve Pagliuca walked into the locker room hoping to invoke a little history.
“(Pagliuca) came in and said it’s a bigger win than you think for the guys in the rafters upstairs,” said Jae Crowder. “I heard a couple of fights broke out tonight. I’m sure the fans went home happy. It’s big to be part of something like that.”
The Celtics won their sixth straight game, their longest streak of the season, and though the region’s heart is still lost in football delirium, before long attention will resettle on what coach Brad Stevens’ team is attempting to accomplish.
To begin with, this win at the Garden coupled with Toronto’s second straight loss officially punched a ticket for Stevens and his assistant coaches to New Orleans, where they will coach the Eastern Conference AllStars on Feb. 19.
For another, Isaiah Thomas continues to insist that he’s part of the MVP conversation, and not just because the home crowd regularly chants it to the Celtics guard.
He produced yet another impressive fourth quarter, this time scoring 17 of his 38 points during the last 12 minutes. As usual, every drop was needed as the Celtics were unable to shake the youthful Lakers until Thomas’ threepoint play with 1:31 left.
He has now scored 20 or more points in 34 straight games — the longest such streak in the NBA — and came within a basket of being the first Celtic to score 40 or more points in three straight games.
As it is, Thomas has scored 123 points — an average of 41 — in his last three games. He’s also scored 30 or more 18 times this season, including his last four games.
“I didn’t know about that three games in a row with 40 or whatever it was,” said Thomas, laughing about not getting the last shot, which was taken by Crowder. “I didn’t know about it or I would have shot the last shot. I didn’t know until they said something when I got back here. I was just glad we won.”
Thomas also continues to elude all manner of coverages, now set nightly by teams that expect him to get the ball for the lion’s share of the final quarter.
“By now he’s seen everything there is,” said Stevens.
Said Thomas: “I’m just growing. I watched a lot of film. Growing as a player, not a person. I watched a lot of film this summer and, just my pick-and-roll game, especially in the playoffs, just trying to figure out when teams do double- or triple-team me, I just can’t let up.
“I gotta continue to be aggressive and continue to make plays and figure out how to dissect the defense when they do different coverages like they’re doing this season. The best part now is my guys are helping me out. And coach, like I always said, puts me in position to figure it out.”
And yet Thomas wasn’t the catalyst in the Celtics’ winning formula. That role belonged to Marcus Smart, who had five steals, nine points and seven assists to help turn around the game after the Celtics’ sluggish start.
Smart checked in, almost immediately tore his first steal out of the arms of Lakers center Timofey Mozgov, and snapped his team’s mindset into shape.
And Thomas made his usual curtain call, scoring seven of the Celtics last 13 points, which also included a Crowder 3-pointer and an Al Horford layup assisted by you-know-who. This closing run came up against solid resistance.
“Helps us be prepared for whatever a team throws at us,” Crowder said of the close finishes. “It takes time and I feel like every other night we get a different look from (Thomas) on that end of the court, so it’s definitely helping. We’re studying and we’re going to try to keep getting wins out of it.”