Isaiah Thomas knocked down three quick 3-pointers, showing that his shot is still there.
Knocking off 12 months of rust wasn’t quite as easy.
Thomas scored 19 points in his first competitive game in more than a year, helping the U.S. to a 93-77 victory over the Bahamas on Friday in a FIBA AmeriCup qualifying game.
“My first time playing in a little over a year so I was a little rusty, but it felt amazing to be out there competing against really good players and also representing my country,” Thomas said.
The 32-year-old Thomas is a two-time NBA All-Star who scored 28.9 points per game for the Boston Celtics in the 2016-17 season. But he suffered a hip injury late in that season and has never regained that form in limited opportunities.
He decided to play for the Americans partly as a showcase in hopes of earning his way back into the NBA, where he most recently played for Washington last February.
The qualifying games were added as a way to give national teams the opportunity to play home games, but all four teams in Group D are playing this weekend in San Juan in a bubble setup because of the coronavirus.
Brandon Bass finished with 12 points and 10 rebounds for the U.S. But another former NBA player, Treveon Graham, left the game with an apparent leg injury in the third quarter.
Travis Munnings scored 22 points for the Bahamas (1-4). AP