Thomas mixes it up for Celtics
BOSTON -- Isaiah Thomas scored 52 points last Friday night without recording a single assist.
Tuesday night, the Celtics' Little Big Man mixed it up a bit more.
Thomas scored 29 points and dished out a career-high 15 assists to lead Boston to a 115-104 victory over Utah.
The win was Boston's first in 10 decisions over team currently with one of the top seven records in the NBA. It also was Boston's ninth straight home win over Utah and ended the Jazz's four-game winning streak.
Thomas, who thought he should have gotten the Eastern Conference player of the month award that went to John Wall, had five points and six assists in the third quarter and then hit a pair of 3-pointers, added two assists and hit four straight late free throws in the fourth. He heard chants of "M-V-P" while hitting his free throws.
He had only one late turnover in 35:24 of action and shot 10 of 18 from the field.
The Celtics (21-14) wore the Jazz (22-14) out from the perimeter, going 17-for-31 from 3-point range, including 5-for-6 from Jae Crowder, who had 21 points, tied his career high in treys and was a plus-21.
Al Horford also scored 21 points, Avery Bradley had 14 and rookie Jaylen Brown added 10 points for Boston.
In addition to their 3-point accuracy, the Celtics won a third straight home game for the first time this season.
Gordon Hayward led the Jazz with 23 points (but was a minus-20), while former Celtic Joe Johnson tried to keep his team in the game with 13 of his 17 points in the fourth quarter. Reserve Boris Diaw added 15 points and Rudy Gobert 13 rebounds and eight points.
The Jazz fell behind by six, caught up, then trailed by seven and caught up again all in the first quarter. They finished on an 11-2 run for their first lead of the game when Raul Neto banked home a 3-pointer from the top of the key as the buzzer sounded at the end of the first quarter.
The Jazz led by a point with 5:24 in the half but the Celtics went on a 16-6 run from there to lead by nine at the break.
NOTES: Utah G George Hill missed his second straight game with a concussion and has played in only 12 games this season because of injuries. ... Boston G Marcus Smart was back after being hospitalized with a stomach bug that has run through the team, but C Tyler Zeller, also hospitalized Sunday, was home with a sinus infection. G Avery Bradley, who missed the last game with the bug, was back. ... Utah coach Quin Snyder on Boston's Isaiah Thomas: "I marvel at him ... He's like a fighter. If you drop your hands he's hitting you in the face." ... Utah C Rudy Gobert just finished a December where he shot .778 from the floor, the highest in the NBA for a month since Wilt Chamberlain shot .780 in March 1973. Gobert averaged 14.3 points, 13.0 rebounds and 2.7 blocked shots during the month. ... Jazz F Gordon Hayward and G Shelvin Mack both played for the Celtics coach Brad Stevens at Butler. ... The Jazz are in Toronto for the third of their five-game trip Thursday night, while the Celtics host the Philadelphia 76ers on Friday.