Isaiah Thomas

Boston Celtics guard Isaiah Thomas switched to a pair of shoes that would get him more buckets at halftime against the Golden State Warriors.

(AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

The Boston Celtics needed star guard Isaiah Thomas to get buckets in the second half of their matchup with the Golden State Warriors on Friday.

To get them, Thomas needed a new pair of shoes -- All-Star Kobe Nikes, to be exact.

"Them other shoes didn't have any buckets in them," Thomas told ESPN's J.A. Adande after the game. "I always know the All-Star Kobes will give me some kind of buckets."

Whether it was the shoes or Thomas' single-minded determination ("I just stayed the course," he told Adande), his performance in the second half -- particularly the third quarter -- proved to be a huge difference down the stretch for the Celtics in the team's signature win of the season to date. Thomas' fellow guard Avery Bradley spent most of the first half putting his special brand of defensive clamps on Warriors superstar Stephen Curry, but a player as skilled as Curry can only be held down for so long. At some point, Boston needed its best scorer to get his offense rolling.

Thomas finally broke into the scoring column a minute into the second half -- pulling back behind the 3-point line with Draymond Green on a switch and blowing by him to the hoop. In the first half, Thomas had attempted to take Green off the dribble, and Green recovered with relative ease and swatted the shot away. This time, however, Thomas extended his arms out as far as he could -- shielding the ball from Green and converting at the rim.

From there, the floodgates opened. Thomas wove through a pick-and-roll on the next possession, challenging Bogut in the paint and flipping in a difficult hook shot. Two minutes later, he rubbed Curry through a screen that freed Thomas going to the basket, where he zipped past Green again and finished with his left hand. Down by three and on the precipice of a Curry-driven avalanche at the seven-minute mark, Thomas buried a triple from the top of the key to tie the game, and after Evan Turner picked off a pass on the ensuing possession, Thomas pushed up the floor and snuck in a difficult layup at full speed to put Boston back out in front.

When the smoke cleared and the third quarter drew to a close, Thomas -- who went bucket-less in the first half -- had 18 points, and the Celtics nursed an 82-79 lead.

That lead could have pretty easily been a deficit largely thanks to Curry, who spent the third quarter counteracting Thomas' offensive outpouring with his now nightly routine of catching fire at the most brutally effective time.

It began on the Warriors' first possession, as Golden State forced Amir Johnson to switch onto Curry. The ensuing rotation freed Curry just enough to get a clean look, which he buried. Golden State nearly turned the ball over on its next possession, but the ball bounced around the paint -- the kind of chaotic play that always seems to end completely in the Warriors' favor -- and once again Curry found himself free for a 3-pointer.

As scorching hot as Thomas got in the third, Curry was even hotter -- comfortably pulling up from this range to even the score at 75 late in the period.

Steph Curry from Mars 😳 https://t.co/0vwlCfiptQ — Rob Perez (@WorldWideWob) April 2, 2016

The audacity a player demonstrates in taking that shot with 15 seconds left on the shot clock -- let alone in burying it right in the teeth of a relatively solid contest -- is completely demoralizing for many teams, and Brad Stevens knew it.

"I thought when Curry got going in the third quarter, the biggest moments of the game were us scoring consecutively when he scored, because when he got going, that's usually when they run away with a 10-0 run or a 12-0 run," Stevens told reporters after the game. "And we had to play."

The Celtics kept playing, and slowly, they proved they had the answer. After Curry's deep trey (which ESPN listed as a 34-footer), Kelly Olynyk answered with a 3-pointer of his own. Curry pushed Golden State out in front by a point with a late trey once again, but the Celtics got four free throws to end the period with the lead.

That set the stage for a crazy fourth quarter, which culminated in a twisting, acrobatic layup by -- who else? -- Thomas. He finished with 22, and Boston ended up needing every point.

"Guys had to play really well," Stevens said. "We didn't have a guy who played poorly. That's what it takes to beat a team like this. They're outstanding."

Fortunately for the Celtics, they had players -- at least on Friday -- who were up to the task of matching the Warriors blow for blow. Next time, however, it might be wise to make sure Isaiah Thomas' locker is fully stocked with All-Star Kobes. There's no point leaving an entire half's worth of buckets on the table just because Thomas doesn't have the proper footwear.