Thomas stars to lead Celtics past road-weary Warriors
los angeles — Isaiah Thomas has made peace and the Boston Celtics were able to turn things around with another emphatic win in Oakland. Boston standout Thomas scored 25 points as the Celtics snapped a two-game losing skid Wednesday with a 99-86 victory over the Golden State Warriors in a battle between two NBA title contenders.
“We are fighters. We compete,” said Thomas. “We are just a bunch of competitors. We wanted to win to end the losing streak.”
The Celtics, who are fighting to hold onto the number two seed in the East, had lost two straight heading into their showdown with Golden State, the Western Conference’s top team.
To add to their difficulties, leading scorer Thomas went public with criticism of coach Brad Stevens’ coaching style after Monday’s loss to the Los Angeles Clippers.
But the Celtics had reason to believe they can have success in Oakland. After all, on their last visit 11 months ago, they snapped Golden State’s 54-game home winning streak. Winning takes care of everything and Thomas was full of praise for Stevens on Wednesday. “The coach is going to make his decisions. I believe in the coach. I trust every decision he makes and tonight we won,” Thomas said.
Boston took charge after a dunk by Draymond Green that gave the Celtics an 80-79 lead in a game that featured eight lead changes and eight ties in the first 41 minutes. Jae Crowder hit three-pointers on consecutive possessions during a 15-0 fourth-quarter surge that helped propel the Celtics to victory.
“We didn’t want to turn the ball over. We believed in our guys and they did the job,” Thomas said.
Boston improved to 41-24 on the season and won for the second time in four games on its Western trip. That allowed the Celtics to remain a game ahead of the Washington Wizards in the battle for the No. 2 playoff position. —