First, a disclaimer: Isaiah Thomas isn’t the same basketball player as Michael Jordan or Larry Bird — nowhere close, in fact.
But that didn’t stop Toronto Raptors coach Dwane Casey from mentioning the Boston Celtics point guard in the same breath as the two NBA legends.
“He’s a great player,” Casey told reporters Wednesday, via MassLive.com. “I’m sure if you remember Larry Bird, they went to him a lot in the fourth quarter. Michael Jordan, they went to him a lot in the fourth quarter and back in the day a lot of those great players — Dirk Nowitzki — didn’t get started until later in the game and had to get revved up. And when it’s money time, those players get it going.”
Perhaps the most surprising part about Casey’s praise of Thomas is that he said it before the game, which saw the All-Star guard explode for 44 points — including 19 in the fourth quarter — in the Celtics’ come-from-behind win at TD Garden.
But can Thomas really be compared to Bird, Jordan and Nowitzki? Well, when it comes to fourth quarter scoring, yeah.
After Wednesday’s outburst, the 27-year-old is averaging an NBA-best 10.5 points in the fourth quarter — a potential record pace.
He’s scored 15 or more points in the fourth quarter 10 times this season, five more than the next-closest player, Russell Westbrook. He’s also scored 20 or more fourth-quarter points on four separate occasions, putting him in a class of his own.
Those are pretty eye-popping numbers for a guy who began last season coming off the bench for the Celtics. Amid the chatter that Boston doesn’t have a go-to fourth-quarter scorer, Thomas has come out of nowhere to dominate the final 12 minutes in a way we haven’t seen since Larry Legend roamed the parquet.
Thomas’ incredible stats admittedly come in a small sample size, but there’s evidence to suggest his scoring binges aren’t flashes in the pan. The 5-foot-9 point guard notched his 33rd consecutive game with at least 20 points Wednesday night, a streak not even Bird matched in his Hall of Fame career.
Thomas isn’t going to drop 15 fourth-quarter points every night, and common sense suggests he’ll (somewhat) come back to earth eventually. But until he does, opposing teams will treat the diminutive guard as one of the game’s preeminent late-game scorers — and rightfully so.
Thumbnail photo via Winslow Townson/USA TODAY Sports Images