Washington Wizards forward Otto Porter Jr. (22) breaks up a drive to the basket by Boston Celtics guard Isaiah Thomas (4) during the second quarter of a second-round NBA playoff series basketball game in Boston. AP
BOSTON — Isaiah Thomas scored 53 points, including nine in overtime, to help the Boston Celtics beat the Washington Wizards 129-119 on Tuesday (Wednesday Manila time) and take a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference semifinals.
Fiddling with the mouth guard he began using after losing one of his front teeth in Game 1, Thomas became the fourth player in the history of the NBA’s most-decorated franchise to score 50 or more points in a postseason game. It was also a career best for Thomas in a playoff game.
John Wall had 40 points and 13 rebounds for the Wizards.
The series moves to Washington for Games 3 and 4 on Thursday and Sunday.
It’s been a rough postseason for Thomas, whose sister died on the eve of the first round. He attended her funeral on Saturday and returned to Boston early Sunday morning — just hours before the Celtics won 123-111 in a game where Thomas lost a tooth.
Team doctors jammed it back in, but Thomas spent part of Monday and Tuesday in the dentist’s chair to have it repositioned. In Game 2, he wasn’t the only one needing medical attention: Washington’s Otto Porter Jr. left the court with blood gushing from his nose, and Celtics guard Avery Bradley needed treatment in the second half.
Al Horford scored 15 points with 12 rebounds for Boston, and Bradley and Jae Crowder scored 14 apiece. Marcin Gortat had 14 points and 10 rebounds and Markieff Morris scored 16 for the Wizards, but both fouled out in overtime.
One game after the Wizards scored the first 16 points of the game only to fall behind by 15 in the third, they erupted for 42 points in the first quarter and opened a 13-point lead. Wall had 19 in the first to 15 for Thomas, but Boston erased the deficit in the second quarter and took a brief lead with just over a minute left before the half.
Washington led by as many as 14 in the third and still had an 87-75 lead with just over 4 minutes left before Boston scored nine of the next 11 points to end the quarter.
Boston led 112-111 with 33 seconds left in the fourth when Porter hit a 3-pointer to give the Wizards the lead. Thomas was fouled going to the basket and made two free throws to tie it, then both Wall and Bradley Beal missed short jumpers that could have won it in regulation.