Teammates reach out to Thomas
In a powerful moment captured by TNT cameras yesterday just prior to the Celtics’ pregame shootaround, Avery Bradley sat courtside with his arm around a distraught Isaiah Thomas, who was hunched over with a hand covering his face.
This is how the Celtics are trying to soothe the point guard’s pain as he attempts to come to grips with the death of his younger sister, Chyna — by allowing Isaiah all the time he needs.
That will involve giving Thomas space as his family deals with funeral and service arrangements this week. As of last night, Celtics had not been informed of Thomas’ plans.
“Whatever he needs to do, he needs to do, and we’ll help in any way,” Celtics coach Brad Stevens said after the Celtics’ 106-102 loss to the Chicago Bulls last night in Game 1 of the first-round playoff series. “If he needs to and wants to stay here, then we’ll be here surrounding him. And if he wants to go to Seattle, then he should go to Seattle. It’s his call, and should be.
“I’m not going to ask him, or make him make those decisions,” Stevens said. “Those have to come on his own time, and then we’ll adjust accordingly.”
Perhaps one of Stevens’ greatest challenges yesterday was getting a team ready that was in mourning with its star player.
The coach’s only choice was to let the day’s events progress. Stevens brought the C’s in for a 3:30 shootaround, with Thomas taking part, and went from there.
“I don’t think there’s an easy answer to that. The game will play itself out,” he said. “Our guys have spent all week preparing really hard, and are excited to get a chance to play in the playoffs. Obviously more important things happen in life. My job isn’t to separate the two — it’s to be there with the rest of the guys to support Isaiah.”
Stevens visited with Thomas soon after the player learned of his sister’s death.
“I think everybody reached out. It’s a closeknit team. He’s a big part of it,” said Stevens. “Isaiah’s a great teammate. Isaiah’s a great husband. He’s a great father. He’s a great guy, great son and brother.
“And I think ultimately we just all tried to do our part in letting him know we were thinking about him, and anything we could all do to help we’d do, that family and this particular situation with his family takes precedent over everything else going on. And that we’re here for him if he needs us.”
Clean up that glass
Chicago had 20 offensive rebounds against the Celtics in Game 1. When they wasn’t grabbing the rebound, the Bulls managed to leave the C’s in an awkward position. Consider Al Horford’s attempt to block out Chicago’s Robin Lopez with 1:41 left. Horford fell backward and knocked Lopez to the floor as the Celtics big man picked up the foul.
Lopez hit both free throws for a 99-92 Chicago lead that the Bulls never kept the rest of the way.
It looks like a problem that won’t go away.
“That was one of the keys for us going into Game 1, and we needed to do a good job of that and we didn’t,” Horford said. “I’m very eager to go back and look at the game — see what kinds of things we can do better. We need to be able to hold them to one shot, and that’s how they were able to stay in the game in the first half. They had an impact that way. It’s happened to us in the other times we played them this year, but we need to figure it out.”
No small task
Expect to see more of Jimmy Butler on Thomas, who is 10 inches shorter than the Bull. Butler has asked for this defensive assignment — he spent most of the fourth quarter on Thomas — and the coverage highlights the physical way the Bulls are attacking him.
“It’s just a different look for him. Isaiah, obviously, he scored more than 30 points, he’s a handful on the floor. It’s just mixing up, giving him different looks with different guys,” said Dwyane Wade. “If it takes two or three seconds away from their offense, it takes the ball a little further out, then we won that battle.”