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Isaiah Thomas stood near midcourt pumping his fist and imploring the crowd to get louder. The Boston Celtics had just unleashed a 3-point barrage to open an improbable 26-point, first-half lead against the Golden State Warriors — the best team in the NBA — and Thomas took a moment to savor the energy inside TD Garden as the visitors called a timeout to collect themselves.

“It was one of those games I used to watch on TV when [Kevin] Garnett and those guys were here,” said Thomas, the pint-sized spark plug who has helped ignite these Celtics since being acquired at last month’s trade deadline. “The crowd was wild. It’s crazy, that’s what you want to be a Boston Celtic for. That was amazing.”

He paused briefly before adding, “It hurts because we didn’t finish it off.”

ESPN Boston – Celtics turn back clocks at Garden

Before we even discuss player performances, x’s and o’s or what last night’s, down-to-the-wire loss means for the Cs chances at the eighth and final playoff spot, let’s pause to acknowledge the significance of the atmosphere at the Garden.

I was lucky enough to be in attendance and when I initially grabbed tickets to this game a few months ago, my NBA fan reaction was, “sweet. I’ll get to see Steph Curry eviscerate the Celtics in person. Who’ll be playing for the Celts that night? Hell if I know.”

Not only was last night’s Golden State victory not a laugher, but for a half of basketball, the Garden atmosphere elicited reactions such as this:

http://youtu.be/zTSRcqKLJ4g?t=16s

As a fan of the Cs, this is all you can hope for. As a player (see Isaiah quote above), this is why you come here. As John has mentioned a few times over the past week: yes, the Boston Celtics are 11 games under .500. No, they are not title contenders, or even a real threat to win a playoff series this year. But we all lived through the 06-07 season, last season’s initial rebuilding campaign and some of the seasons of slow malaise in the 90s. Last night’s game provoked a crowd reaction fit for a playoff team, not a lottery one.

Let’s hope that’s just the beginning.

Page 2: The Warriors’ defensive adjustments were too much to handle

“They adjusted and switched everything,” said Thomas who had 20 points off the bench with five assists and just one turnover. “They went small like we have the last few games and they switched everything. We tried to figure it out in the flow and we couldn’t.

Thomas added, “That was my fault as the point guard. I’ve got to do a better job figuring out where the mismatches are and where we can go in the offense, especially in the half court.”

That said, the Celtics still had a chance to force overtime. Trailing by three with just a few ticks left on the game clock, Thomas had a great, relatively open look at a top-of-the-key 3-pointer that hit the back of the rim and bounced out.

“I thought it was going in,” Thomas said. “It was on line. But it just didn’t fall. That happens.”

Thomas’ potential game-tying shot came at a time when Stevens could have elected to call a time-out rather than have Thomas go the length of the floor and pull up for a 3-pointer.

CSNNE – Thomas’ game-tying shot didn’t fall

In the first half of last night’s game, Isaiah Thomas’ 15-point blitz off the bench was the catalyst that broke the game open for the Cs. In the second, his inability to get the hoop and create offense for himself and his teammates was a major factor in the Cs scoring just 45 points in the last two and a half quarters of the game.

Give the Warriors and Steve Kerr a lot of credit. When you come back from 26 down, in the midst of a cross-country road swing, it’s more than as Doc always says, “a make miss league.” It takes adjustments on the other end of the floor to quell the other team’s momentum, leading to shots falling on the other end of the court.

Conversely, let’s not chalk this all up to: Kerr outcoached Stevens last night. The Isaiah Thomas era is now one week old in Boston, and coach and player are still figuring this out on the fly.

One thing is clear, however, when teams go smaller and switch high screens defensively, Thomas is going to have to make the right plays. A majority of the Cs points in the second half came off fast breaks and isolation plays, which isn’t the recipe for success for this group.