Dispatch · August 29, 2026
Twenty-five points in one quarter on an ankle that would not hold him
The best individual quarter in Finals history is attached to a loss, which is why it gets told wrong.
No games last night. The anchor is June 19, 1988, Game 6 of the Finals at The Forum.
The Echo
What last night rhymes with
Detroit was 1 win from the title. Thomas scored 14 straight in the third quarter, rolled his right ankle on Michael Cooper's foot, limped to the bench, and came back to finish the quarter with 25.
He finished with 43 points on a foot he could not push off. Detroit lost by 1, and lost Game 7 by 3 with Thomas playing 28 minutes on the same ankle.
The reason to know this: the Bad Boys are remembered as an intimidation act, and the intimidation was real. But the team that ran them was led by a 6 foot 1 guard who averaged 13.9 assists in 1984-85 and won a Finals MVP 2 years after this.
The rhyme every modern fan already has is Kawhi Leonard's 2019 or any star playing hurt in June. The difference is the rules. Thomas was hand-checked on every catch, hip-checked on every drive, and the league did not remove that until 2004.
Detroit won the next 2 titles. The quarter is still the thing to watch, and it is 12 minutes long on the internet for free.
Tomorrow: Fifty on Tuesday, 50 on Wednesday, and nobody remembers.
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