Turner: Don’t think little of Thomas
CELTICS NOTEBOOK
SALT LAKE CITY — Evan Turner likes to remind people he once told Isaiah Thomas that he would be great.
“When he gets that new deal I want 5 percent,” Turner, now a Blazers forward, said before the Celtics’ win over his new team late Thursday in Portland, Ore.
Turner, who will miss 5-6 weeks because of a broken bone in his right hand suffered Wednesday, is in the rare position of saying he could see Thomas’ rise. The Celtics guard has climbed to the secondleading scorer in the NBA, a level even Turner could not predict.
Everything about Thomas’ ability to carry an offense is rooted in an uncommon desire for greatness, said Turner.
“I was with him over the summer and he said he was going to diet, (make) another jump to my game, and I was like all right, you’re an all-star, where are you going to go from here?’ ” he said. “I know mentally his determination is not shocking, but what he’s doing — 40 points on 15 shots, all that crazy stuff, no one saw coming except for him. Mentally, the dude is tough.”
Turner often guarded Thomas during practice, and can attest to the way Thomas actually turned his 5-foot-9 size — a disadvantage, according to common perception across the league — into a weapon.
“People say typically (his size) doesn’t help him, but with what talent he has and what he’s able to do, low man is always going to win the battle,” said Turner. “He’s able to get by a lot of this and a lot of situations. He can use ball screens and stuff to his advantage. And he’s always in attack mode and he can score. The dude is in a great groove right now.”
And it doesn’t matter that opponents continue to know Thomas is getting the ball virtually every time down the floor in the fourth quarter, either to make a shot or a play for someone else.
“He gets buckets, man,” said Turner. “At this level you do what you’re great at. It doesn’t matter what they throw at you, because you do what you do. He gets after it, has a great work ethic and a great ability to do what he does.”
Learning on the job
The value of Jaylen Brown’s minutes are growing in value as the rookie’s role continues to rise in the absence of others, including Avery Bradley (strained right Achilles) and Jae Crowder (family emergency).
And with that comes a little frustration over mistakes he has made under increased exposure, such as missed layups against Portland.
“I was just missing layups, I don’t know what it was,” he said. “I’ve got to do a better job — I’m kicking myself over it. I probably missed four or five shots — normal shots, and-ones. Next game I’ll make it a focus to keep getting better. You have to be a little more locked in, just finish those plays.”
Asked about a particular play in the second quarter, when he cleanly beat his man only to have the drive go high off the backboard in clear misfire, Brown said, “The ball slipped out of my hand on a post-up. I just have to slow down a little bit. I had more time than I thought I did.”
Dealing with injuries
Turner considers his injury a challenge from a practical, everyday aspect.
He has a passion for video games, and, “don’t know,” he said, “in this situation my brothers might have the upper hand on me.”
Then there’s a task as simple as getting dressed.
“Trying to find a coat that I could wear out today, and I had to put my robe on. My house robe,” he said. “I always wear robes, but I was trying to move on from doing that. My jewelry, putting my earrings on, eating, stuff like that. I tried to sign a couple of things and I couldn’t.” . . .
Though there’s an outside chance Bradley could join the team for tomorrow’s off day and Monday’s game in Dallas, coach Brad Stevens said he’d be surprised if the guard made another appearance before the AllStar break.
It’s unclear whether Crowder will rejoin the team for tonight’s game against the Jazz. He left to tend to what Stevens termed a “family medical” issue in Dallas, where the Celtics are headed after tonight’s game.