Celtics’ Isaiah Thomas on Hawks’ plan: ‘A sign of disrespect to my teammates’

2:43 AM ET

ATLANTA — When Boston Celtics point guard Isaiah Thomas turned the corner after taking a handoff midway through the second quarter, he found three white Atlanta Hawks jerseys impeding all possible paths to the basket. Thomas was a bit incredulous. He hadn’t seen this sort of attention since his days at Curtis High School, near his native Tacoma, Washington, where opponents used to throw a box-and-one at him.

But even as Boston’s early double-digit lead evaporated, Thomas did the only thing he could and made the right basketball play by passing the ball. Thomas gave the ball up on 75.3 percent of his touches (55 passes on 73 touches) during Tuesday’s Game 5, a number far north of his regular-season average (68.8 percent; 61 passes on 88.6 touches).

Thomas’ teammates failed to fully exploit the opportunities created by all the attention on Thomas, and when Boston’s All-Star point guard struggled to generate offense on his own, the Celtics had no response.

Thomas finished with a mere seven points on 3-of-12 shooting in 29 minutes. Adding injury to insult, Thomas hobbled off the court after suffering a mild left ankle sprain early in the fourth quarter of a game the Celtics eventually lost 110-83.

The Hawks lead 3-2 in the best-of-seven series that returns to Boston for Thursday’s Game 6.

Thomas was adamant that he’ll play on Thursday with Boston’s season on the line, but he was just as steadfast that his teammates must make Atlanta pay when it puts that sort of attention on one …

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