Derrick White caught a pass in the left corner from Jrue Holiday and launched a pretty clean look at a 3. The ball dipped its toe into the rim but decided White was still too cold to jump in. It was White’s fourth straight miss from deep to start the game, but Payton Pritchard went right back to him when the offensive rebound dropped into his hands.
So White launched again. This time the ball splashed through the net. The entire Celtics bench rose to their feet as it did, and Sam Hauser gave White a celebratory push.
“The whole team was behind me and supporting me,” White told reporters after the win in Dallas. “It just takes one to get hot. So I just kind of had that mindset.”
White hit four of six 3-point attempts after his 0-4 start. Not surprisingly, the Celtics started to look really good at about that same time. When the Celtics offense opens up and someone like Derrick White gets going, the Celtics look unstoppable. Once a defense has to react to White, Kristaps Porzingis, Jrue Holiday, or any non “Jay” Celtic, the ball starts whipping around the floor and shots start to fall.
And man, do the Celtics look different when shots fall.
“D White is so good,” Porzingis said. “We're a different beast when D White gets going and start hitting floaters, 3s, these deep corner 3s. He’s hit so many daggers for us. That brings us to another level.”
The Celtics have been trying to find that other level for a little while now, so one hot game against a depleted Mavs team isn’t going to move the needle much. They just demolished the remnants of the Warriors to start the trip and two games later hands were hovering over the panic button again.
At least the Celtics understand it’s their own fault.
“We were like a lion last season,” Porzingis said. “Some games this year, we’ve looked like a house cat. We want to have that spirit as a team this year. And it’s tough.”
It only gets tougher. The Houston Rockets will be waiting for the Celtics in Boston on Monday with revenge on their minds and the confidence of two straight wins over the Cavaliers behind them. The Celtics will be on the dreaded first game back after a long road trip, the same situation that helped fuel a loss to the Kings a couple of weeks ago.
“We're just taking in everything that we need to learn, and the guys are sticking together. So I think it's important,” Joe Mazzulla said. “We have an understanding of what the standard is, and we don't really get too worked up. When we lose, we have an understanding of why we did it. We're pissed off. And when we win, we still say, hey, there's 10-15 possessions that we have to get better at.”
Cleveland has hit a skid, losing three straight and five of their last eight. The Celtics have gained some ground as the Cavs have come back down to earth a bit, which is nice. At the same time, Boston’s losses to the Hawks and Raptors stand out as missed opportunities to get even closer to the top seed. And while getting that top seed probably doesn't matter much, it would still be nice to have.
But getting there means finding some consistency. The issue isn’t that we don’t know what the Celtics are capable of doing. It’s that we’re well aware of what they're capable of, and they're only reaching it sometimes. It’s like paying for the premium high-speed internet plan but suddenly your movies and shows keep buffering. Frustrating doesn’t even begin to describe it.
“We’re definitely working towards getting our killer instinct back,” Porzingis said. “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, keep holding each other accountable … I think it's happening. So just patience and not overreacting to every little bump on the road.”
Yeah, good luck with that last part.
The best way to block out the outside is with the sound of shots swishing through the net. The more that happens, the more the issues we’ve seen with this team can be put in the past. The team has said all along that the players in that locker room are too good to struggle this much for that long. One of these games has to be the start of a hot streak.
Right?
“Winter always turns to spring, no matter what,” Jaylen Brown said. “When things are not going your way, you just stay the course and the tide will turn. We’ve had enough experience to know what that looks like. You can’t complain when it’s not going your way. We just gotta be more detailed, be more focused, and get ready for the switch to flip.”