On would-be birthday of late sister, Isaiah Thomas drops 53 in Celts' OT win
— -- BOSTON -- Intensive dental work prior to Tuesday's night's Game 2 wasn't about to slow Celtics All-Star? Isaiah Thomas, especially not on the night of what would have been the 23rd birthday of his late sister Chyna.
Thomas poured in 53 points -- 29 of them coming in the fourth quarter and overtime -- as Boston beat the Washington Wizards?129-119 to take a 2-0 lead in the Eastern Conference second-round series.
"My sister," Thomas said on TNT when asked where his intensity and performance came from. "... Everything I do is for her, and she's watching over me."
Chyna Thomas was killed in an auto accident last month, a day before the Celtics' playoff opener.
Thomas told TNT that his sister wouldn't want him to stop playing, and that's what drives him. He said the reality of her death sets in when he's not playing.
Against the Wizards, Thomas shot 18-of-33 from the floor, including 5-for-12 from beyond the arc. He also grabbed four rebounds and four assists.
The point guard is the only Celtics player to have a 50-point game in both the regular season and the playoffs during the same season.
"He was not feeling good and was having a tough day," Celtics coach Brad Stevens said after the game. "I thought he was really going to have to gut this one out. He not only guts it out, he ends up with 50."
In Game 1 against Washington on Sunday, Thomas had one of his left front teeth come out in the first quarter. An initial attempt to reposition the tooth by team doctors at TD Garden was unsuccessful, but that didn't deter Thomas from scoring a game-high 33 points as Boston rallied from a 17-point deficit to win.
Thomas missed practice Monday while undergoing oral surgery, and Stevens said he believes the All-Star had to undergo more work before Tuesday's game, in part because the damage was more than just the lost tooth.
"The tooth that was knocked out was not the only one that was affected. So he had some other issues there," Stevens said. "So he was in getting oral surgery [Monday]. A few hours after practice ended, he came by the office for a minute but was still ... I don't know if he went back to the dentist's today or went to the hospital today just to work on it some more, but he's continued to have some work on it."
Stevens said Thomas was fitted for custom mouthguards for additional protection soon after oral surgery.
ESPN's Chris Forsberg contributed to this report.
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