BOSTON — After showering off following the Oklahoma City Thunder’s rout of the Boston Celtics, Kevin Durant looked down to see an unexpected visitor in TD Garden’s away locker room.
It was Isaiah Thomas’ young son, followed closely by the boy’s dad, Boston’s starting point guard. They had stopped by after the Celtics’ 130-109 loss to say a quick hello to Durant, who was making his only trip of the season to Causeway Street. The two players shared a handshake, with each complimenting the other’s game, and Thomas and his son departed.
This all came after Durant, unbeknownst to Thomas, offered some seriously high praise for the Celtics’ lone All-Star.
“He was definitely trying to keep them in the game with his scoring,” Durant said of the 5-foot-9 guard. “I’ve never seen a guy so small that can do just about anything on a basketball court. He goes into the paint, finishes with the bigs. He can shoot the three, pull up. He’s an All-Star player. He played as hard as he could (Wednesday night), and I think we did a good job of making all his shots tough. But great players make shots, and he’s one of them.”
Oklahoma City led by as many as 30 points in the game and never trailed, but Thomas, who joined Durant and Thunder guard Russell Westbrook at the 2016 NBA All-Star Game in Toronto, did his best to keep Boston within striking distance, making 11 of 19 shots (including 3 of 4 from 3-point range) to finish with a game-high 29 points.
It’s a role Thomas often has played this season. He leads the Celtics in scoring with 21.9 points per game, nearly seven full points per game higher than the next player on that list, guard Avery Bradley (15.1).
Thumbnail photo via David Butler II/USA TODAY Sports Images
