BOSTON -- Boston Celtics head coach Brad Stevens clearly had offense in mind when he reinserted Isaiah Thomas for the final possession of the third quarter, but could not have predicted how the 5-foot-9 guard scored his ensuing bucket. After teammate Marcus Smart missed a turnaround jumper, Thomas rose to tap in the offensive rebound before flexing his muscles to celebrate the rare putback.

With a laugh after Boston's 110-102 win, Thomas showed his appreciation for the suggestion he could have dunked the ball if he were fully healthy.

"For sure," Thomas said through a smile. "That was a good excuse. Hell yeah."

Despite the obvious undertones of humor, Thomas said he did feel the impact of a right knee bone bruise throughout a 25-point, four-assist night. Returning after a two-game absence, the point guard still created all sorts of offense, earned 11 free throw attempts and finished with a +15 on the night, but missed his first three attempts at the rim, showing an atypical lack of burst in the paint. More than once, he drove by his defender, only to let that same player impact his shot.

"I felt all right," Thomas said. "The push off one leg is kind of tough right now, my leg is kind of weak. But I'll get that back with rest and continue to get treatment. That was probably the only part, especially in the first half, I couldn't get no lift. For the most part, I felt pretty good out there."

Good enough to do this, at least:

Isaiah Thomas just beat out two defenders for a tip-in.



He couldn't believe it either 😂 pic.twitter.com/jfhfaxBTcH — NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) March 21, 2017

"I should have tip-dunked it," Thomas laughed. "Nah, I was just making a play on the ball. I guess it was just one of those games for all of us."