3 Games, 3 Plays: Cavs' bread and butter; Knicks' latest disaster; Isaiah conundrum

Three plays that decided a fun night in the Association

Every night in the NBA, there are hundreds of plays. And they all matter toward the greater fabric of what goes on, the wins and losses. But some plays matter more. Here are three plays that mattered more on Monday night:

ANYONE BUT I.T. -- Hawks 114, Celtics 98

Isaiah Thomas’ season has been electrifying. He has lifted the Celtics to the 2 seed and raised his profile to being an MVP candidate in some folks’ eyes. But it’s also taken a huge amount of usage, long minutes, and transcendent play. The problem is twofold. A) It’s had to maintain your play at that level. B) Teams will eventually start to scheme for you and design everything to shut you down.

In this way, Thomas isn’t wholly different from Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry before the arrival of Kevin Durant. The file on the Warriors the past two years has been “anyone but Curry.” You live with Klay Thompson or Draymond Green going off, but you don’t let Curry set you ablaze. That was always easier to say than do, but the strategy was sound, and almost helped the Oklahoma City Thunder knock off Golden State in the Conference Finals before Klay Thompson went nova. But the Celtics don’t have a Klay Thompson. And that means teams can load up. If you play Thomas physical, and send multiple defenders at him, and you have a rim protector, you can overwhelm him.

That’s what Atlanta did. Notice how Dwight Howard contains the 5-9 Thomas at the rim, and then on the offensive rebound, the Hawks scramble to recover, and make multiple helps. That’s key. Dennis Schröder made a fantastic closeout on Thomas the first time, and then a second helper covers for that over-extension.

Now, Jae Crowder, a 40-percent 3-point shooter is the intended target of that pass. But part of the problem is Thomas’ height, which, no matter how amazing he is at compensating for it, is still a limitation. And in the end, you live with those percentages. You make Crowder, et al, beat you. The Celtics couldn’t. In his past four games, Thomas is shooting 35 percent from the field overall and only 24 percent in the fourth quarter. 

BONUS: The Hawks had to dodge a huge bullet. Dwight Howard got ejected for hanging on the rim, which was his second technical foul:

This was a ridiculous technical, considering these are two playoff teams and that’s a tech for what is at most an extra half-second on the rim than necessary. Furthermore, the NBA had to clarify immediately following the game that due to the nature of the technical foul, it should not have counted toward his ejection. Imagine if Atlanta had lost that game? That said ... Dwight, don’t do Dwight things like that. You played an awesome game. Don’t sully it by being, you know, you.

DEMAR DID WHAT HE DOES, THE KNICKS DID WHAT THEY DO -- Raptors 92, Knicks 91

Let me tell you what the play of this game was going to be. It was going to be Lance Thomas’ extra effort on an offensive rebound to tap the ball out to Carmelo Anthony, who then made a great decision to pass to Courtney Lee. It was a terrific sequence. Watch Thomas’ effort on this play.

That should have been it! It should have been finished! We should be celebrating Lance Thomas’ effort here.

But no, the Knicks had to Knick ...

Now, huge credit goes to DeMar DeRozan for once again being a demon ninja in the clutch. And part of the credit goes to DeRozan for forcing the two-for-one on the previous Raptors possession, a mid-range floater that ensured another possession. But man ... 

The Knicks get scrambled on the inbound. That’s fine, that happens. They’re forced to switch when DeRozan comes over the screen. That’s OK, that happens. But you wind up with Derrick Rose, a short, bad defender with limited hops at this point in his career guarding the much taller DeRozan. 

Oh, but that’s not the worst part. 

They had a foul to give. 

Hornacek doesn't seem happy that Knicks didn't use foul to give: 'we told them we had a foul to give' and use it if could

— Yaron Weitzman (@YaronWeitzman) February 28, 2017

Yup, another sterling performance from that defensive unit Phil Jackson put Kurt Rambis in charge of. From Rose to the coaching not getting through, to no one realizing it, to the simple fact that Rose was in the game and not Justin Holiday ... just very Knicks. So Knicks. All of the Knicks.

YOUR BREAD AND BUTTER -- Cavaliers 102, Bucks 95

The Bucks made a run to close the gap to one, and the champs were not engaged enough to have created separation. But when in doubt, you go to what works best. And for the Cavs, that’s a Kyrie Irving - LeBron James pick-and-roll. The Bucks oftentimes will blitz the pick-and-roll but you can’t do that with James. Unfortunately, you can’t do what the Bucks did, either, which is leave poor Matthew Dellavedova in single coverage vs. him, and then not bring early help.

Just look at that size mismatch. That’s just devastating. And then neither John Henson nor Giannis Antetokounmpo is willing to help down. That seems obvious, but bear in mind, helping down is why Atlanta gets killed vs. Cleveland. The Hawks always collapse the paint vs. James in those playoff sweeps, and James carves them up with the extra pass. There are no good options, but most of it comes down to early recognition and then preemptive recoveries. The Bucks did neither, and so the Cavaliers got the edge to get the victory.