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Adversity Stands No Chance Against These Celtics

Marc D'Amico
Team Reporter and Analyst

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BOSTON – Adversity? Ha. What’s that?

Whatever it is, it doesn’t seem to affect the Boston Celtics.

They don’t see it. They don’t feel it. Simply put, it doesn’t affect them.

“We always continue to just keep going,” Isaiah Thomas, who scored a game-high 33 points during Game 1 against the Washington Wizards, said of the Celtics facing challenges. “We know it’s not going to be, I guess, peaches and cream all the time, and we always play with our backs against the wall.”

That’s an understatement in regard to this postseason.

Boston opened up its first-round series against the Chicago Bulls by dropping each of its first two games at home. All it did was follow those losses up by winning four straight, including three on the road. to close out the series.

Time and time again this season, the Celtics have responded to and overcome similar tests. They did so again Sunday afternoon during Game 1, thanks in large part to Thomas, who faced a couple of additional challenges himself.

Boston stumbled out of the gates and fell behind 16-0 less than four minutes into the game. The team was hoisting up airballs and committing turnovers, all the while allowing Washington to cash in on quality look after quality look.

All of that mattered to the scoreboard, but it didn’t matter in the minds of the Celtics. They’d been there before, and they knew that they’d battle back.

“Tonight, we definitely didn’t want to be down 16-0, but it happens, and we just locked in even more,” Thomas said of the deficit. “We settled down, we executed our offense, and we got stops. That’s how we got back in the game.”

Thomas scored 19 points during the first half and Kelly Olynyk added 12 as the Celtics slowly chipped away at Washington’s lead. By the time halftime arrived, Boston trailed only 54-49, after having already tied the score up on multiple occasions.

Thomas continued to pour it on the Wizards during the third quarter, as he scored another 12 points on 5-of-8 shooting. Jae Crowder also contributed 11 points during the period as the Celtics stormed ahead by 15 points.

There was no looking back from there. Boston maintained its lead to the final buzzer for a series-opening 123-111 win.

The slow start to the contest was only a portion of the adversity Boston overcame on this day. The team as a whole was playing on short rest, having just flown back to town less than 24 hours before tip-off. Thomas, meanwhile, was at an even greater disadvantage.

Boston’s All-Star point guard revealed after the game that he did not return to town until 4 a.m. Sunday morning after a cross-country flight from his home town of Tacoma, Washington. Thomas had flown home following Game 6 Friday night in Chicago to attend the funeral services for his sister, Chyna, who tragically died in a car accident on April 15.

Tallying 33 points and nine assists during an NBA playoff game while emotionally drained and on minimal rest is remarkable, but Thomas took it one step further. He did all of that after having his front-left tooth knocked out early in the first quarter.

Thomas lost his tooth after absorbing an inadvertent elbow from Otto Porter Jr. His reaction was simply to pick the tooth up, hand it off to athletic trainer Ed Lacerte, and go about his next play.

Which just so happened to be a made 3-pointer. And then another. And the points just kept rolling in.

Talk about resolve.

“He’s able to come in here and say no excuses, but he has a perfectly good excuse and he still comes out, he’s focused, and it was like he flew back with us from Chicago yesterday,” Al Horford said of his teammate’s incredible performance, after he pitched in 21 points, 10 assists and nine rebounds of his own. “He didn’t linger at all, and that’s just a credit to him and his way to get prepared for the game.

“It was unreal.”

It sure was, and so was Boston’s comeback win.

But really, who counted the Celtics out after they fell behind 16-0? Anyone who did is a fool.

The Boston Celtics , led by their star point guard, laugh in the face of adversity.

A 16-point deficit in the first quarter of an NBA playoff game? Ha. That’s nothing.