It took a while for Derrick White to return to his on-brand self.
White struggled to find his rhythm in his first 12 appearances this season. After leading the team in scoring (21.7 points) during the preseason, he seemed ready to embrace the challenge of playing second fiddle to Jaylen Brown, knowing his 3-point shot would be critical to keeping Boston’s offense rolling as the team worked to integrate its newcomers. But for the 31-year-old, that effort got off to an unexpectedly ice-cold start.
The agonizing process of trying to get back on track while watching his struggles impact the team’s ability to win saw White’s 3-point shooting plummet to a career-low 28%. He was attempting 8.9 threes per game, but only 2.5 were falling. And on the 13th game of the season, White and the Celtics finally saw the results of their patience, as sticking by one of the team’s most proven and effective pieces culminated in a strong performance against the Grizzlies on Wednesday night.
“It felt good,” White admitted following Boston’s 131-95 win over Memphis at TD Garden.
White scored 20 points, shooting a season-best 54.5% from the floor, including 50% from three on six attempts. He also grabbed five rebounds and dished out four assists, helping Boston reach a season-high 34 assists, while imposing his elite two-way impact on the Ja Morant-less Grizzlies with two steals and a block.
In many ways, it was a breakout performance for White. He did everything the Celtics expected from Opening Night — it just took a little longer to arrive.
“Yeah, I was frustrated, obviously,” White said. “Especially when you think you’re getting good looks that you should knock down — it’s definitely frustrating. But everybody just stuck with me. I mean, I still got a long way to go. Just because I shot it well today doesn’t mean anything. I’m just trying to trust the process, trust my form, continue to get those good looks, and stick with it. It’s definitely frustrating, but it’s all part of the journey, I guess.”
Last season, White shot 38.4% from beyond the arc, but the early-season struggles this year quickly began to catch up to both him and the team.
White’s slump reached a low point in Philadelphia, just 24 hours before returning home to host Memphis. With 5.4 seconds left in the fourth quarter, he received a pass from Brown but juggled the ball, lost possession, and had no choice but to launch a desperate 38-foot heave at the buzzer en route to a catastrophic and regrettable defeat.
Behind the scenes, nobody in the locker room lost faith in White, knowing that his 3-point shot is just one of several elements that make him a vital piece of the puzzle.
“He has an important job for us and he’s got a lot of responsibility,” Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla said. “I think he’s like top of the league in steals and blocks, and he just takes on different roles every night. So he’ll just continue to do whatever it takes to help us to win, and tonight it was his scoring, and he was good.”
White wasn’t the only Celtic struggling from deep, as teammate Payton Pritchard also became an unrecognizable version of himself from beyond the arc. Before draining five 3-pointers on Wednesday night to score a game-high 24 points, Pritchard had hit a career-low 25.6% in outside shooting.
That, however, didn’t make it any easier for White, watching Pritchard navigate the exact same hurdle.
“Sometimes it’s tough because everybody’s talking to you about it,” White said. “Everybody’s like, ‘Keep trying. Keep shooting. We believe in you.’ You just hear that from every person, so you wanna sometimes give them some space and let them process it their own way. Everybody has their own way of getting through slumps and getting through tough times. P knows we have the ultimate amount of trust in him — that this is just a little slump — and if we keep getting those looks he’s been getting, it’ll start turning for us.”
The 44-point duo of White and Pritchard helped the Celtics not only defeat the Grizzlies but dominate them — all without a flashy scoring night from Brown, who finished with 19 points. Boston’s starting guard pair proved it doesn’t have to be the JB show every night, and even with a limited roster, the Celtics can still (somehow) make it work.
Looking ahead, White knows the bar isn’t what it once was for him or for any of the team’s returning premier players. The Celtics will need much more, given how razor-thin the margin for error has become.
“It’s honestly a little different,” White said. “We’ve got a younger team — guys that are learning on the fly. So it’s kind of learning each and every game what works for us, what doesn’t work for us. We keep talking about the process, and I think for the past couple of years we’ve had people that have been here and done that. So those little mistakes, they happen a little bit more often. It’s just something that we continue to learn from and continue to grow from. Everybody’s super bought in and super open to learning, growing, and seeing what we need to do to win these games.”
