It appears as though the defending NBA champion Boston Celtics may finally be getting used to that massive target on its back.
Two days after matching the biggest comeback in the NBA this season in its win over Philadelphia, Boston played spoiler to a valiant comeback bid from the league-leading Cleveland Cavaliers. The Celtics, who led by as many as 20 points in the second half of Tuesday night’s matchup, saw their advantage dwindle to as little as four before Derrick White took matters into his own hands with three-straight buckets in the game’s waning moments.
“He’s one of the most clutch players on our team honestly,” Celtics center Kristaps Porzingis said of White after his team’s 112-105 road victory. “I feel like he always hits big shots. Not tonight, but usually he has some deep corner ones. He’s a rhythm player and once he gets in that kind of rhythm and starts hitting those pocket threes and making plays, he’s very, very special.”
White, who netted four three-pointers in the decisive fourth quarter, silenced the home crowd when his back-to-back treys turned a four-point lead into a 10-point advantage for the visiting team with 2:41 to play. White finished with 20 points and shot 50-percent from the floor in his team’s fourth-straight victory.
Boston improved to 2-1 this season against a Cleveland squad it eliminated from the Eastern Conference Semifinals in last year’s playoffs. The teams will square off for one more regular-season matchup Feb. 28 in Boston.
“I’m just trying to make shots,” White told reporters after the game. “Especially in those moments, JB, JT, KP get a lot of attention, and they’ve got to live with something. So just try to step up and shoot it with confidence and knock them down, and I was able to do that tonight.”
Per usual, Boston’s offense was led by All-Star starter Jayson Tatum, who finished with 22 points and seven assists. Jaylen Brown, who scored his team’s first seven points, finished with 16 points and nine rebounds, while Porzingis (19 points, seven rebounds) and Al Horford (13 points, 10 rebounds) also scored in double figures for Boston.
Cleveland, meanwhile, began the game a dismal 1-for-14 from beyond the arc, but eventually connected on 11 three-pointers to extend its streak of making at least 10 three-pointers to 55 games. All-Star Donovan Mitchell (10 rebounds) led all scorers with a game-high 31 points, followed by Darius Garland (25 points) and Jarrett Allen (17 points, 18 rebounds).
The Cavaliers, who headed into Tuesday night’s game the winners of four straight, will look to bounce back Wednesday when it travels to Detroit to take on the Pistons. Boston, on the other hand, will welcome a Dallas Mavericks team to town that looks much different than the team it faced in last year’s NBA Finals. All-Star forward Anthony Davis, who was acquired from the Lakers over the weekend in a blockbuster trade that sent international superstar Luka Doncic to Los Angeles, is slated to play hist first game in a Mavericks uniform in that matchup.
But for Tatum, never one to look ahead, his focus Tuesday was solely on the play of White.
“It was big, we needed that from him,” Tatum said. “He really got it going in the fourth, just being aggressive. He’s an integral part of our team. When he’s hitting shots and being aggressive, we’re just that much harder to guard.”
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