BOSTON — Isaiah Thomas scored 53 points — the second-highest total in Celtics playoff history — to help Boston beat the Washington Wizards 129-119 in overtime on Tuesday night 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 had nine points in overtime, when the Celtics outscored Washington 15-5. He is the fifth player in the history of the NBA’s most-decorated franchise to score 50 or more points in a postseason game, missing John Havlicek’s team record by one point.
It was also a career playoff best for Thomas.
“What else is there to say?” Celtics coach Brad Stevens asked. “There was a point today where he was not feeling good at all. He’s had a tough day and I thought he was going to really have to gut this one out. Not only guts it out, he ends up with 50. Pretty impressive.”
John Wall had 40 points and 13 assists for the Wizards.
The series moves to Washington for Games 3 and 4 on Thursday and Sunday.
“It’s the playoffs. Everybody’s going to come and play a very tough game,” Wizards coach Scott Brooks said. “They took care of their home court the first two games. We’ve been very good on our home court all year with great fans.”
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 for a hip pointer in the second half.
WARRIORS 106, JAZZ 94
OAKLAND, Calif. — Stephen Curry scored 22 points in three quarters of work and the top-seeded Golden State Warriors warmed up in a hurry after a weeklong layoff between playoff games, beating the Utah Jazz 106-94 on Tuesday night in the opener of the Western Conference semifinals.
Draymond Green scored Golden State’s first six points of the fourth quarter and finished with 17 points, eight rebounds, six assists and two more blocks to bring his five-game playoff swat total to 19.
Kevin Durant added 15 points on an uncharacteristically cold shooting night at 6 for 14 and also five rebounds and five assists.
Rudy Gobert had 13 points, eight rebounds, two blocks and a Flagrant 1 foul on Green in the fourth for the Jazz, who just finished off the Clippers in a seven-game series Sunday, while the Warriors waited after eliminating Portland in a sweep April 24.