Chants rang out Tuesday night inside TD Garden, echoing as they had dozens of times for Jayson Tatum when he stepped to the foul line to polish off a hard-earned Celtics win.
“M-V-P! M-V-P! M-V-P!”
Except this was no final stroke on a midseason masterpiece. This was the postseason, Game 2 against a desperate Hawks team in the first round. Grueling, physical, playoff basketball, not an inch to be yielded.
And the player who inspired these chants? It wasn’t Tatum.
It was Derrick White, who nailed two foul shots under the avalanche of cheers he earned over a 26-point, seven-rebound and three-block performance. His free throws pushed the Celtics’ lead to 14 at 4:25 remaining after his steady hand guided Boston through its shakiest stretches of the fourth quarter. Tatum may have punctuated the 119-106 win with a couple last-minute assists and a thunderous dunk, but the celebration, the MVP performance, was all White.
Early in the fourth quarter, the Celtics held their smallest advantage in almost a half of gameplay when Bogdan Bogdanović drained a corner 3 in a 96-88 game. Tension grew inside the Garden. Then White calmly answered with a pull-up 3-pointer, the type of shot that brims with a confidence he never knew last season.
“Last year was a whirlwind … for a lot of reasons. But this year, from the first day I felt comfortable and (am) trying to get better each and every day,” White said. “The team is doing a great job of empowering me.”
Two possessions later, he pursued a loose ball and wrestled Atlanta center Onyeka Okongwu, four inches taller and 45 pounds heavier, to a draw. The whistle blew.
Okongwu held tight. So did White. They walked together toward the Celtics bench still gripping the ball in a pointless fight for a play that had already been ruled dead. The crowd came to life, roared.
A teammate tapped White on the shoulder, almost as if to say: “Let go, and look around. You won.”
Said White: “It was cool to get the love from the crowd and the bench.”
Naturally, White lost the ensuing jump ball, which caromed to Bogdanović for another 3 and another eight-point deficit. No matter.
Trotting back up court, White snuck near the baseline while a dribbling Malcolm Brogdon danced with his defender near the left block. Defensive help arrived, White sprung into open space underneath the basket and rewarded Brogdon’s clever pass by hitting a layup.
As Atlanta finally stalled out, White drilled another 3, and before 90 seconds could pass after that shot, he charged at a back-pedaling Okongwu in transition. Their rematch was no tie. Only sweet victory for White in the form of another basket.
“D-White just exploded,” said Jaylen Brown.
“He’s played his ass off these last two games,” Tatum said. “Obviously (he’s) a big, big reason why we won these last two games, and we need him to continue to play at this level. And he can.”
Celtics respond after slow start, take control of series with Game 2 victory over Hawks
At last came the foul shots, and the chants, perhaps the first and the last White will ever hear in his career. But what he delivered Tuesday, what he heard, spoke to the truest sense of the award. White brought value, helping spur a 12-0 run in the first half while Tatum sat, and then serving as a primary scoring option down the stretch while Brown bowed out in a so-so performance.
He embodied the Celtics' game-plan focus on the interior, scoring 18 of their 64 points inside the paint, a franchise postseason high in at least 25 seasons, per ESPN. Defensively, he recorded a team-high three blocks and snatched seven rebounds, second-most on the team and third-most on the night.
"We're just so much more of a dynamic team when D-White is asserting himself and being aggressive and not being passive," Tatum said.
After the game, Tatum revealed he and White chatted about the "M-V-P!" chants. While those cheers may be mere background noise for Tatum now, they were an unexpected source of joy for White at the end of another unexpected playoff performance that's starting to feel more regular by the day.
Asked White: "So that's what it feels like?"