Point guards Isaiah Thomas of the Boston Celtics and Dennis Schroder of the Atlanta Hawks get into a huge shoving match in Game 3 of their playoff series.
The Atlanta Hawks and the Boston Celtics have met a staggering 12 times in the postseason. From the Hawks’ days in St. Louis to the Larry Bird/Dominique Wilkins rivalry to the way-too-close No. 1/No. 8 2008 first round series, these two teams definitely have a bitter history with each other on the hardwood.
In Game 3 Friday night at TD Garden in Boston, during a first quarter where Boston clobbered Atlanta senselessly, the two point guards on the floor in Boston’s Isaiah Thomas and Atlanta’s Dennis Schroder begin a shoving match that result in both primary ball handlers getting technical fouls.
Isaiah Thomas and Dennis Schroder go at each other #playoffs pic.twitter.com/sYTVP7lS3x
— Gifdsports (@gifdsports) April 23, 2016
Atlanta was up 2-0 on Boston in the series, but the Celtics came out will great tenacity in Game 3. German point guard Schroder tends to get a little confrontational with the opposing point guard in an effort to get in his head.
Schroder must have said something to Thomas because the Boston point guard clobbered Schroder in the noggin in transition on an Atlanta offensive possession. Naturally, all three officials missed the swing by Thomas and Schroder started getting very upset about it.
It was only the first quarter in this rivalry series, but things may get even more explosive in the TD Garden between these two evenly matched teams. Atlanta and Boston finished with identical 48-34 records in 2015-16 with Atlanta holding the tiebreaker and thus having the four seed over No. 5 Boston.
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