For the first half of Saturday’s Celtics-Mavericks matchup, it appeared that Derrick White’s prolonged scoring slump would continue. At halftime, he was sitting on five points, having gone 1-for-5 from 3-point range.
Then, the third quarter happened.
The veteran guard scored 16 points in the frame, including the Celtics’ first 11 of the second half. It was more points than he’d scored in seven of his previous nine full games.
White finished with 23 points on 7-of-16 shooting, including 4-of-10 from three, as Boston raced to a 122-107 win to close out a 3-1 road trip.
Though White turned in solid scoring efforts in recent games against the Los Angeles Clippers (20 points) and Atlanta Hawks (21 points), he entered Saturday averaging just 10.0 points over his previous 10 contests, shooting 32.6% from the floor and 23.9% from three during that span. Five of his seven lowest point totals of the season have come since Jan. 5.
Against the Mavs, he almost singlehandedly protected the Celtics’ lead coming out of halftime, outscoring Dallas 11-10 by himself over the first 4:18 of the third quarter while his teammates navigated an 0-for-5 cold spell.
“The best way to get (White) looks is just empower him and make sure that he’s aggressive,” Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla told reporters postgame. “I loved watching him do that, and it’s great to watch the teammates empower him, too, because they know that we need him. It’s nothing more than just continuing to make sure he finds ways to be aggressive.”
White made a career-best 39.6% of his 3-pointers last season, and he upped that number to 45.5% in the playoffs. Center Kristaps Porzingis said the Celtics didn’t lose faith in White’s offensive abilities despite his recent dip.
“I mean, D-White is so good,” Porzingis told reporters. “Sometimes he just, maybe he lost a little bit of rhythm, which can happen. But I think (Saturday) we saw, a couple threes that he hit, it was like, ‘Oh yeah, that’s D-White,’ when he’s in a rhythm. And it’s always good to see that. We’re a different beast when D-White gets going and starts hitting floaters, threes, these deep corner threes. He’s hit so many daggers for us, and that brings us to another level.”
Saturday’s win also featured one of Jrue Holiday’s best 3-point shooting performances of the season. White’s backcourt mate went 5-for-10 from deep against Dallas, including two fourth-quarter threes that helped Boston put the game away.
Like White, Holiday posted career numbers from beyond the arc in 2023-24 and has struggled to replicate that this season, with his overall 3-point percentage dropping from 42.9% to 35.6% and his success rate on corner threes tumbling from 61.9% to 28.8%. But when he finds his 3-point groove, the Celtics are tough to beat.
Since Holiday arrived in Boston before last season, the Celtics are 33-3 when he makes three or more threes, with their three losses coming by one, two and six points. He and White combined for 40 points against the Mavericks.
“It’s big,” White told reporters. “Every night, it could be somebody different, and I just think we each made big plays. Whatever the moment was, everybody just stepped up and made the play they needed to make. We’ve got a lot of talent, and it’s nice when we’re all clicking like that.”