MIAMI — Derrick White caught the ball at the top of the arc with Bam Adebayo, one of the NBA’s best defenders, standing just a couple of feet away. The passive choice would have been to swing the ball to a teammate or to dribble the ball out and continue the offense, but White shed his passive nature long ago. Already rolling about midway through the first quarter, he decided to test the power of his hot hand.
“I think any person that kind of gets a couple going in and then you start making some tough ones and then you feel like you just can’t miss, that basket’s huge,” White said after a 102-88 win gave his Boston Celtics a 3-1 series lead over the Miami Heat.
White released a 3-point attempt a moment before Adebayo could block the shot. The audaciousness highlighted White’s confidence. It displayed his aggressive mentality. It told the story of his development over the years, and especially this season, into a bolder, more forceful offensive player. He has fit right in since joining the Celtics in 2022, but these days, he is more likely to stand out.
White did that Monday while scoring a career-high 38 points, with two uncharacteristic dunks in traffic and several contested heat checks. He didn’t make all of the ambitious tries, but he kept putting them up, calling his own number, riding the rhythm as far as it would take him. It was White’s night from the start, and he treated it as such.
DWHITE STRIKES AGAIN 🔨🔨🔨🔨🔨 pic.twitter.com/EAWkKuW4rb
— Boston Celtics (@celtics) April 30, 2024
“Obviously you make a couple, you kind of feel like you got the ultimate green light,” White said. “So you can take some dumb ones, which I did. You just try to not do that. Just kind of continue to play within the flow of the offense and you try to hunt a little bit more. But still trying to play within the flow of the offense.”
It wasn’t within the flow of the offense when White beat the shot clock with a long 3-pointer over Duncan Robinson. It was likewise daring for White to launch a transition pull-up over Robinson later in the second quarter. White could have pulled the ball out in transition late in the third quarter, with the Celtics ahead by 24 points, but he split three defenders to create an easy layup. That bucket came after White, who had 13 dunks over the entire regular season, slammed home two big ones within 44 seconds of each other, then perfectly read the Miami transition defense to find Jaylen Brown for a dunk on the next Boston possession.
White showed no hesitation throughout the game. He carried the Boston offense on a night when none of the other starters had it going. Jayson Tatum shot just 5 for 14 from the field. Brown, who committed six turnovers, needed 18 shot attempts to score 17 points. Jrue Holiday started strong but only tallied three points after halftime. Kristaps Porziņģis missed the entire second half with a right calf injury, which will require further evaluation. Outside of White, the rest of the Celtics roster combined to shoot 35 percent from the field. Thanks to his big outing, they still led for the final 46:31 and held a double-digit advantage for the entire second half. He shot 15 for 26 from the field, including 8 of 15 on 3-point attempts.
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“Man, it’s great,” Al Horford said of White’s night. “I just think that he just continues to get better, but also I feel like he’s getting more comfortable. I know he’s been here for a few years now. I just think that he’s finding his way. There’s a lot that he has to navigate as a point guard and a lot of things that he has to do. I was just so happy to see him. He was taking what the defense gave him. He was being aggressive. He was attacking. It was beautiful to see.”
Porziņģis and Jrue Holiday weren’t the Celtics’ only big additions this season. This version of White — the more brash one — also transformed them. For as much as Boston asked the other starters to sacrifice, coach Joe Mazzulla empowered White to do more. He played more minutes. He attempted more shots. He increased his averages in scoring, rebounding and assists. He became a staple in the closing lineup after sitting during certain crunch-time stretches last season. The Celtics beat opponents by 12.5 points per 100 possessions with White on the court, dominating his playing time much like they did last season. Even after acquiring Holiday, fresh off an All-Star season, the team stuck with its plan to use White as point guard. It was Holiday, not White, who needed to give up significant touches.
The Celtics put White in a position to do more. That was smart. They always seem to flow better when he’s prominently involved.
“When he’s being aggressive it just opens everything up,” Tatum said. “Whatever they’re trying to take away, maybe for myself, when your teammates are hitting shots and being aggressive and attacking closeouts and making plays, it really makes us very, very hard to guard. You want everybody to be assertive and be aggressive and try to make plays. It just makes us a better team.”
White couldn’t be more humble. It can be in his nature to blend into the background, but he has done so less frequently this season. He took command of Game 4 early. After the Celtics led 15-12 midway through the first quarter, he scored eight points over the next 57 seconds to extend the advantage to 23-14. After stepping into a 3-pointer on the left wing, he beat Haywood Highsmith to the basket in transition and completed a nifty finish with the left hand on the right side. He then drilled another triple from the left side. White’s 3-pointer over Adebayo, which came about two minutes later, made the score 29-14. White never stopped looking for his offense after that. He attempted 26 shots, 10 more than he had ever tried during a playoff game with the Celtics. Even in the regular season, he had never taken as many shot attempts in his career.
“Every game I kinda had the same mindset of just trying to be aggressive and reading what the game is telling you,” White said. “Not forcing anything and just doing what I need to do. I thought I got a couple of good looks early and the team did a good job of finding me and empowering me to stay aggressive.”
The timid version of White, which popped up occasionally during his first playoff run with the Celtics, seems to be trapped in the past. He’s more sure of himself now as an outside shooter, more willing to assert himself on a nightly basis.
“I think it starts with Joe,” White said. “Ever since he took over, he’s just giving me the most confidence. I can talk to him, he can talk to me. That relationship is getting better and better each day, and it’s amazing to play for him and I love it. Obviously the teammates, guys are such great players on the team, but they allow me to do what I do and believe in me, and I think that’s big.”
Horford said he was just as impressed with White’s defense. The guard blocked three shots, giving him five over the first four games of the series.
“His commitment to defense and making sure that he’s getting out there and contesting shots and doing certain things,” Horford said. “That’s what makes Derrick so special.”
White’s game is complete. He is still normally the fourth scoring option when the Celtics are fully healthy but can become more than that when the team needs him to be — or on occasions like Monday when he has it going. In a Boston jersey, he had never been so eager to seek his own shot. After starting hot, he tested the boundaries of his game, looking for shots he often wouldn’t consider taking.
“I think when he was aggressive early in possessions coming off stops, pushing the pace, he was able to create some cross-matches, he was really just able to create some space there,” Mazzulla said. “And he’s done a good job of just — we went to some more small-small stuff kind of spaced on bigs, and when we do that, that’s when he has the ability to impact the game.”
Even with Porziņģis’ status unclear (more is expected to be known Tuesday after he undergoes further evaluation), the Celtics are now in control of the first-round series after taking both games in Miami. Still, White doesn’t expect the Heat to go quietly. He has seen enough of them in the playoffs to believe they won’t be eliminated easily.
“We know they’re not going to quit,” White said. “They’re going to come and attack us this whole series.”
Throughout Game 4, White attacked Miami the other way. The Celtics didn’t need too much from anyone else to run up a comfortable lead and hold onto it for most of the game.
“It’s just great to be on a team like this that is deep and talented on both ends of the floor,” Tatum said, “and on any given night can have a guy like that erupt and win us a playoff game.”
(Photo: Megan Briggs / Getty Images)
