Tag: Words

DALLAS — Before Derrick White’s third-quarter flurry Saturday, which he might have needed more than the Boston Celtics did, came a three-word message from Joe Mazzulla.

As White missed his first six goal attempts against the Dallas Mavericks, including four tries from behind the arc, Mazzulla must have sensed his starting point guard needed a lift. White’s shooting woes extended back far longer than just one half. So critical to the Celtics’ success when at his best, his efficiency had dipped since early December. Recently, he hadn’t even been taking many shots, never mind making them.

Mazzulla didn’t like that trend. He believes the Celtics need an aggressive White. With the guard struggling again early Saturday, Mazzulla called a timeout.

“I love you,” Mazzulla told White.

White’s 16-point third quarter helped drive Boston to a 122-107 road win. The hot stretch will take on more significance if it pushes White out of his recent slump. Jaylen Brown said White changes the Celtics when he gets going.

“It’s big for our team,” Brown said. “I’m always pushing D-White to be aggressive because him being aggressive on both offense and defense is a great sign for our team. It just makes him a threat. It makes everything kind of flow easier for us. He hasn’t gotten the same amount of looks or he hasn’t been as confident recently. Today was a good sign, and we gotta keep building on that going forward.”

The Celtics needed White’s highest-scoring quarter of the season. After the Mavericks pulled within 4 points shortly after halftime, he scored the game’s next 11 points.

DWhite with 11 PTS to start the 3rd pic.twitter.com/nG0dbLt38B

— Boston Celtics (@celtics) January 26, 2025

White started the surge by drilling his first shot of the second half, a corner 3-pointer, after a hard Kristaps Porziņģis post-up drew the Mavericks defense into the paint. One minute later, White drove around a Porziņģis screen, put his shoulder into P.J. Washington’s chest and created enough space for a short floater. Shortly after that basket, White drew a foul on Spencer Dinwiddie with a hard push in transition. White scored again when Dallas gave him too much room in a pick-and-roll, then forced a Mavericks timeout with a fast-break dunk one minute after that.

“I made the one in the corner,” said White, who finished with 23 points. “I think the whole team was behind me and supporting me, and then (assistant coach) Phil (Pressey) said it just takes one to get hot, so I just had that mindset. I finally made some, so that made me kind of happy.”

As White indicated, baskets haven’t always come easily for him lately. He’s been one of the Celtics’ most consistent scorers early this season, but his offense has gone missing at times recently. With the team at full strength or close to it most nights recently, he seems to be sacrificing as much as anybody. Entering Saturday, he had five single-digit scoring games in his last eight outings after posting four such games all season previously. He said the dip has been due to a lot of factors.

“Obviously, KP comes back and it kind of changes some things,” White said. “But also I shot it like crap, so those two things come together and you don’t score many points. So I’ve just got to continue to do what I need to do to be repaired and just know that it’s gonna turn and try to make shots when I’m wide open. That’s just what I did today.”

Before the game, Mazzulla said he needs to find ways to activate White’s offense again. His six games with the fewest shot attempts this season have all come since Christmas.

“That’s part of my job, our job is to make sure that the talent that we have is flowing in the right spot,” Mazzulla said. “And so that comes with time. I think Derrick, I always urge him and let him know how important he is to our team, whether it’s his transition, whether it’s his catch-and-shoot 3s, his ability to get to the free-throw line, his defense. He’s just constantly affecting that. It’s really important for us. So, yeah, I think it’s definitely something as a staff we talk about, not just for him, but for all our guys. We’ve got to make sure we’re doing what we need to do as a staff to put the guys in the best position where they can be impactful and successful.”

White entered Saturday averaging 13.8 points and 3.9 assists per game on 39.5 percent shooting, including 32.9 percent on 3-point attempts, over 24 games played since the beginning of December. Those numbers were a far cry from his averages over the first month and a half of the regular season. As much as he has grown in Boston, the Celtics don’t want to see him lose any of the confidence he has built.

“D-White is so good,” Porziņģis said. “Sometimes he, maybe he just lost a little bit of rhythm, which can happen. I think today we saw a couple of 3s that he hit 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, 3s, these deep corner 3s. He hits so many daggers for us that it brings us to another level.”

After one of White’s misses during the third quarter, Mazzulla clapped his hands furiously on the Celtics sideline and let the guard know he liked the pull-up 3-point attempt. The shot revealed confidence. It showed aggressiveness. Just a couple of hours before it, Mazzulla emphasized the Celtics want plenty of that from White.

“Just him being aggressive is important for us,” Mazzulla said. “And that’s the most important thing.”

The Celtics, who finished their Western Conference trip at 3-1, want to harness a similar aggressiveness as a team. Porziņģis said they played like lions on their march to a championship last season but have played like house cats at times this season.

“We’re definitely working towards getting our killer instinct back,” Porziņģis said. “We want to have that. Some moments we’ve looked really good, some moments not so good, some moments we’ve cruised a little bit and it’s kind of been a mix of everything. So I think it’s important for us to keep adding to what we have in these kinds of games, to keep adding, to keep making steps forward, to keep pushing each other, to keep holding each other accountable. And we have great support around us with the coaching staff and everybody. So just have to keep making steps forward as a team. And I think it’s happening. I think it’s happening. So just patience and not overreacting to every little bump on the road.”

Brown also believes the Celtics are headed for better days soon. In a funny moment Saturday, he was surprised to see a motivational quote attributed to him in the Boston locker room. On a whiteboard, somebody wrote, “We want to make sure we come together and look each other in the eye and put our best foot forward. You see a lot of teams that won’t do that.”

Whoever wrote the message on the whiteboard suggested Brown initially said those words. He just didn’t remember ever doing so.

“I didn’t write that up there,” Brown said. “I don’t know who did. I’m not even sure if I said that. They’re just putting words in my mouth. Whatever it takes to help inspire the team was whatever gets it done. But I don’t know where that came from.”

Whoever posted that on the whiteboard should have asked Brown for a better quote. He provided one later after saying a long winning streak is coming for the Celtics.

“One of my favorite quotes is, ‘Winter always turns to spring,’” Brown said. “No matter what. When things are not going your way, just stay the course and the tide will turn. We’ve had enough experience to know what that looks like. We can’t complain when it’s not going your way. You just gotta be more focused, embrace it and then get ready to (flip the switch).”

(Photo: Kevin Jairaj / Imagn Images)