BOSTON — As the Celtics wrapped their final practice before the Cavaliers came to town, Derrick White was working on missing.
Remember that iconic put-back to win Game 6 in Miami last year? It wasn’t random. White practices that.
That’s why on Monday, a big plastic egg crate covered the rim where White and his coaches were working. His touch has been so good lately, that they couldn’t let him practice offensive rebounding without a lid on the hoop.
Derrick White practicing scoring on Jarrett Allen pic.twitter.com/6xDxTJ7Sj0
— Jared Weiss (@JaredWeissNBA) May 6, 2024
In the opposite corner of the gym was Jaylen Brown, who spends every day running pick-and-roll reads against several coverages. One coach is wearing a giant foam arm to ensure Brown threads the perfect skip pass to the corner. Practice at game speed in game conditions and the results will be game-ready.
Brown’s work was apparent in Boston’s 120-95 win over Cleveland to open the second round on Tuesday. But when he saw White come one short of a career-high with seven 3-pointers, he understood the work that led to that moment.
“We just go over certain reads in practice all the time. I see him on the side always working on the kind of shots he knows he’s gonna get,” Brown said. “We got certain actions, actions he’s mastered, where his shots come from. So it’s almost like practice for him because he shoots those shots over and over again. If a guy goes under, Derrick White feels confident, and he takes those shots and makes those shots.”
When White first got to Boston, he was shooting 30 percent from deep on many wide-open looks. Catch, stare at the basket, shoot — it wasn’t clicking. The Celtics paid a pretty price for this jovial utility player who could do a little bit of everything but couldn’t deliver offensively enough to be a part of the system. He was already 27, presumably a finished product.
Now, 2022 feels like a long time ago. That Derrick White is gone.
While he has spent the last few years saying his uptick is due to his teammates and coaches giving him confidence, it’s more than that. It’s the work Brown and others see him putting in every day.
“Derrick White has grown. Like, this is a new version that we haven’t seen before,” Brown said. “He’s put the work in, his body has developed a little bit, he’s got some more playoff experience and he’s being aggressive. We urge him to do that. We’ll need that more and more down the line.”
White joined Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Damian Lillard and Jamal Murray as the only players to hit 20 3-pointers over a three-game span in postseason history, per NBC Sports Boston’s Dick Lipe. As this season has progressed, so has White’s evolution.
“Hell of (good) players,” White said of the list he just joined. “That’s for sure.”
His individual output has a clear correlation to winning. When White takes at least a dozen shots, they don’t lose. The Celtics have won 21 of those games consecutively, with their last loss coming against Denver on Jan. 19 in a 102-100 thriller.
The numbers make it clear: Boston needs White to fire away to be at its best.
“It’s important because it means usually the shots he takes are because we’re either out in transition, we’ve set really good screens and he has that (look), or there are two-on-ones and we’re making extra passes,” Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said after White scored 25 points in Game 1. “So I think when those guys get more and more shots, it means we’re getting to the different layers of our offense which is important against a team like this.”
The thing about White is he takes some bad shots now, but somehow usually in the right moments. He used to be reticent to take anything out of the rhythm of the offense, but launching this shot with 17 seconds on the clock is audacious.
White broke from the play to take a 3 that Garland nearly blocked, because he felt it. There are not many presumptive…
This article was originally published by a theathletic.com . Read the Original article here. .