When Dennis Schroder was going through the NBA Draft process three years ago, he drew comparisons to Rajon Rondo. He played with fearlessness. He played with an attitude. He was confident. He made opposing players uncomfortable and rather irritated.
That scouting report has proven to be quite accurate, and Celtics fans are seeing it firsthand in this Eastern Conference first-round series with the Hawks. The German point guard has clashed a few times with Isaiah Thomas, frustrating the All-Star so much that he took a swipe at Schroder’s head in the first quarter of the Celtics’ 111-103 win Friday night.
Boston received some fortunate news Saturday when the league ruled Thomas’s swing was only a flagrant-1 foul and didn’t warrant a suspension. That means a Thomas-Schroder rematch is on tap for Sunday’s Game 4 at TD Garden.
Schroder will be the most despised athlete in the building. He will receive a deafening chorus of boos as he enters the game off the bench, and honestly he would not have it any other way.
The 22-year-old with the blond-dyed hair has established himself as one of the league’s top reserve point guards. He is better offensively than Rondo was at the same stage though not in Rondo’s class as a distributor. But their mentalities are similar. Each time Schroder has flown past a Celtics defender to the basket, he has flashed a “you can’t stop me” smile.
He plays with extreme confidence and said he thoroughly enjoyed the Game 3 atmosphere at TD Garden, especially with him being cast as the villain. During pregame introductions, the crowd booed every Hawk evenly because they don’t really have a strong disdain for any particular player. That may change Sunday.
“I mean, they’ve got a good crowd, it reminds me of Germany,” Schroder said. “Everybody is into the game. Everybody is cheering. I think it’s a great crowd.
“I like [being the bad guy]. I think that’s just another motivation for me to win the game.”
The Hawks have attempted to follow the personality of coach Mike Budenholzer, a Gregg Popovich disciple who during interviews makes Bill Belichick look like Don Rickles. He has a monotone voice. He wants no part of controversy and he absolutely berated Schroder for his Game 3 altercation with Thomas during a timeout before he saw video of the incident.
“Dennis is great because he’s so competitive, he and I have kind of walked this fine line or a little bit of a dance,” Budenholzer said. “I think there’s a way to compete and keep your focus. There’s a way we’d like our team to handle ourselves, to be ultra-competitive but to always be ultra-classy and ultra-professional.
“I think Dennis as a young player is just learning that balance. At some point I probably have to give him a little leash. He’s a really good player but he knows how we’d like to conduct ourselves and how we’d like to handle ourselves and while being very competitive and very professional at the same time.”
But like Brad Stevens with Thomas, there is only so much a coach on the sideline can say. These are emotionally charged men in an emotionally charged environment in the playoffs, where career reputations are built.
Schroder has no plans of backing down from a challenge. These are intense games. There were three flagrant fouls in the second half Friday, in addition to the altercation between Thomas and Schroder.
“I told Coach that’s my game and I like to be competitive and just try to mess with the opponent and just try to mess with the other players,” Schroder said. “He told me I’ve got to still see how far it goes and I have just got to be careful.”
Shorty after Game 3, Schroder sent out a tweet with a picture of Thomas making contact with him and called for Thomas to be suspended. He quickly deleted the tweet, blaming his emotions.
“I think it was a good decision,” he said. “But I still feel disrespected by what [Thomas] did and will try to focus on winning the game [Sunday].”
When asked what preceded the altercation, Schroder said: “I just scored a basket, and tried to go back on defense and he smacked me. I think that has nothing to do with basketball.”
Will there be carryover to Sunday? Officials are going to carefully monitor the situation. Thomas has to feel like he got a reprieve by avoiding a suspension, so he should be on better behavior.
One thing is for sure. Celtics fans have now found the focus of their ire and they will let Schroder hear it when he checks into Game 4.
“It’s the playoffs, it’s going to get physical,” he said. “Like I said, I like to be competitive and I’m just going to laugh about it.”
Gary Washburn can be reached at gwashburn@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @GwashburnGlobe.