Isaiah Thomas dropped 29 of his 52 points in the 4th quarter for a Celtics record


Cue up the Jack Buck tape, "I don't believe what I just saw!" Isaiah Thomas went full terminator in the 4th quarter tonight, and man oh man was it a spectacle. He dropped a loud 52 for the game against the Miami Heat, which was phenomenal in its own right, but the show he put on in the final frame was truly something to witness. The Celtics led by 4 heading into the 4th, and ultimately won the game 117-114. Isaiah single-handedly carried the scoring load in the 4th quarter for the Celtics, as he scored 29 of their 35 final points:


The 52 points was a career-high for Thomas, who just broke his previous scoring mark of 44 he set just a little over a week ago against the Grizzlies. Not only was this a massive scoring outburst, but it was an efficient one as well. Isaiah shot 15 for 26 (57.7%) from the floor, 9 of 13 (69.2%) from three, and he made all 13 of his free throws - 6 of those threes came in the 4th alone.

He shattered some records, tied some more, and put his name alongside some of the Celtic and NBA greats with his performance tonight:








Seeing his name up their with Bird, McHale, Pierce and Sam Jones is certainly quite an accomplishment, but this one really puts what he did tonight into perspective:


Wilt-Effing-Chamberlain. That's the only guy in the history on the NBA who's scored more points in a 4th quarter, and he did it in a game where he scored 100. That is unreal. Wilt was a 7'1 freak-of-nature. Isaiah is 5'9 and looks like a guy you'd play pickup with at your local jam. Not to mention Wilt did it way back in 1962!

After the game Thomas thanked his coaches and teammates for believing in him, but Brad Stevens claimed coaching didn't have much to do with this performance. Via Jay King of Mass Live:

"It was obviously an unbelievable effort to not only finish out a long month, but six games in nine days, come back, get in at three in the morning, and go for 29 in the fourth," Stevens said. "It's remarkable. I mean, I don't know what else to say. As I said on TV just now, it had nothing to do with coaching. That was an unbelievably willful performance."

After the game some of his teammates weighed in too:


Jae Crowder said he just wanted Isaiah to keep shooting:

"I wanted him to ride it at the end of the game," Crowder said. "I wanted him to go get the ball every time."

Thomas' shooting display didn't go for naught, as the Celtics pulled out a big win on the second night of a back-to-back. His most impressive shot of the night was the one that put the game away, and it also happened to put him at an even 50. After nearly losing the ball on a drive Thomas flips the ball out to Crowder, who dumps it right back to Isaiah - he drops a bomb from the parking lot, the Garden exploded, and Tommy Heinsohn lost his damn mind:


Isaiah's monster game puts him as the leading scorer in the Eastern conference, and he had M-V-P chants raining down at the TD Garden throughout that magical 4th quarter. After the game Abbey Chin of CSNNE asked him about the game, and Thomas was humbled by everything that happened:


Jerome Allen is right, Isaiah Thomas is a bad dude.


Related: Isaiah Thomas scores a career high 52 points in a win over the Heat, 117-114

Photo Credit - Celtics.com

Follow Mark on Twitter: @MarkAL401





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