Isaiah Thomas complains about minutes, says Celtics 'gave up' against Warriors
This isn't what you want to hear
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1 min read
The Boston Celtics' 104-88 loss to the Golden State Warriors on Friday was a bit of a disheartening one. Not because of the result -- it would have taken a near-perfect game to beat the Warriors -- but because of the way that it happened. The Celtics were down by just seven points at halftime, but then completely fell apart in the third quarter, giving up a 24-3 run.
When asked about that third quarter, Boston guard Isaiah Thomas bluntly took his team to task.
"We gave up," Thomas said, via Yahoo Sports' Ben Rohrbach. "Coaches too, started subbing. I don't know how I only played 27 minutes. We gave up."
Thomas also said that the Celtics "went into panic mode," via the Boston Globe's Gary Washburn.
None of this is encouraging for a Boston team with lofty goals and a 6-6 record. It's also not the first time Thomas has voiced his displeasure publicly -- after six games, he told reporters that "we're not as good as we thought we were" and said they were playing without a sense of urgency.
Against Golden State, it's not totally clear that the Celtics stopped trying. They did appear to get discouraged, though, and that's a problem. Part of what made Boston a challenging opponent for the Warriors last year was the fact that, when Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson made crazy shots, the Celtics just came right back at them. This time, they allowed Golden State to break the game open.
As for Thomas' playing time, he left the game with 4:52 left in the third quarter and his team trailing 79-52. When he re-entered with 5:16 left in the fourth, Boston trailed 97-78. It is not surprising that he wanted to get back on the court sooner to try to start a rally, but presumably coach Brad Stevens wanted to try a different group after surrendering that huge run.
