|
BOSTON -- Celtics point guard Isaiah Thomas is in the starting lineup for Thursday's Game 6 of his team's Eastern Conference first-round series against the Atlanta Hawks. Celtics coach Brad Stevens said Thomas experienced no lingering issues from the mild left ankle sprain he suffered at the end of Tuesday's Game 5 loss. "Today it was just as simple as a nonverbal thumbs-up," Stevens said. "So he's fine. He's good to go. He's ready to roll." Thomas said he tweaked the ankle in Games 4 and 5 against the Hawks, but he was adamant after Tuesday's loss that he would play in Game 6, with Boston facing elimination.  The Hawks limited Thomas to seven points in Game 5 and aggressively trapped him throughout the game. Stevens wants Thomas to make the "right basketball play" if the Hawks blitz him again. "He's going to have the ball a ton for us, he's going to be off the ball on actions for us, he's going to have to read when he should screen, he's going to have to read when he gets the ball how he's being played and just make the right basketball play," Stevens said. "There's certainly things you can do to alleviate some of that. But I felt we attacked it really well at the start of the game. Certainly, part of their scoring runs was some bad offense on our part in the latter parts of the game. I left thinking Isaiah made a lot of the right basketball plays. That's his charge: He has to do that, and we'll follow suit."
|
