On this day in Boston Celtics history, fan-favorite point guard Isaiah Thomas scored a regular season career-high 52 points in a 117-114 win against the Miami Heat at TD Garden back in 2016.
The King in the Fourth went off for 29 of those 52 points in just the fourth quarter alone, putting up a total of 26 shots while making 15 of them, connecting on 9-of-13 shots the Tacoma native put up that night. The Washington native was also a perfect 13-of-13 from the line to fill out the rest of his historic night of offense against the Heat.
Thomas reached a point total only the likes of Celtics legends Larry Bird (60 and 53 points) and Kevin McHale (56 points) had attained.
“[IT] just took over the game,” teammate Al Horford said after the game via ESPN’s Chris Forsberg.
“It doesn’t seem real, and they wanted me to keep going,” Thomas said. “That’s what’s great about these teammates. They wanted me to get 50. Jae (Crowder) even wanted me to get 60. I don’t know how I was going to do that, but it says a lot about those guys.”
“That fourth quarter — it just felt like I was out there by myself, like I was in the gym working on my game and throwing up everything, and it was just going in. It was a special feeling,” he added.
It is also the date of the Celtics’ highest point total in one half of a game in team history, which saw Boston hang 85 points on the Denver Nuggets in a high-scoring, 145 – 132 win on the road in 1982.
It was a balanced affair led by Cedric Maxwell with 27 points and 8 rebounds and saw seven Celtics in double figures.
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