The Celtics failed to close out the 76ers on Tuesday night, losing by double-digits at home after entering the night with a 3–1 series lead. Boston now must hit the road again and try to finish off its first-round opponent, a familiar story for the franchise in recent years. Despite the overwhelming talent of Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum, the C’s have struggled to win at home in the postseason.
The big story of their Game 5 loss was an absolutely horrendous fourth quarter. They tallied only 11 points in 12 minutes and missed their final 14 shot attempts. It was one of the worst fourth quarters we’ve seen in the playoffs in over 20 years, as noted by ESPN’s Tim Bontemps, and was the worst scoring quarter from Boston this season. That sort of showing will make for a primary talking point entering Thursday’s Game 6.
But it hides the Celtics’ biggest problem: the complete and utter disappearance of one of their best players. Not Tatum. Not Brown. But Derrick White.
White turned himself into perhaps the NBA’s best role player after getting traded to Boston in 2022. He was always a great defender with an uncanny knack for racking up blocks but his evolution into a deadeye shooter was what made him a truly elite two-way player—a star in his own right, even if it doesn’t fit the traditional mold of what a modern NBA star looks like. In 2024–25 he was one of six players to average 3.5 three-pointers made per game and finished 10th in Defensive Player of the Year voting. Not many players can lay claim to that sort of skillset, and White even turned himself into a decent ballhandler to become his team’s third option to run the offense behind the star duo at the core of the franchise.
This year, however, White was forced into a much larger role while Tatum recovered from his torn Achilles, and his numbers suffered as a result. His three-point percentage plummeted to 32.7% and he shot under 40% from the field for the first time in his career. Which didn’t come as a big surprise, all things considered. The 31-year-old is clearly at his best playing off both Brown and Tatum and this was the largest offensive load he’d ever had to shoulder. And, poor numbers aside, the Celtics were still much better with him on the floor than off as they won 56 games—proof of concept that White can find other ways to contribute to winning even during the coldest shooting season of his career.
With Tatum re-entering the mix in March there was plenty of reason to believe White’s efficiency numbers would improve. If they didn’t, he showed how he can help win games regardless throughout this campaign. But then the playoffs started. White’s shooting got even worse. He struggled to contain the speedy Tyrese Maxey. All of that has combined to make him a complete non-factor in Boston’s first-round playoff series.
White has been missing in the first round for the Celtics
White is barely cracking 20% from deep this postseason. | Eric Hartline-Imagn Images
The shooting guard’s playoff averages are eye-meltingly poor—8.2 points per game on 29.8% shooting Through five games, White has missed 33 of his 47 shot attempts and made only seven three-point field goals. He’s still racked up a few great defensive highlights and certainly isn’t a minus on that end, but he’s slowly faded into the background on the other end. That was never more obvious than in Game 5, where White only took eight shots in 32 minutes and made two of them.
Shooting poorly is one thing, but he hasn’t been participating in the offense. Part of what made White so dangerous in the past was his threat from deep combined with his ability to create against defenses treating him like an elite shooter. When he’s at his best, White is attacking off the catch against rotating defenses and running pick-and-roll actions with Tatum as the shot clock winds down. It’s why he averaged the most two-point makes this season of his Celtics tenure and was able to dish out 5.4 assists per game.
But it’s become clear his shooting woes have impacted his confidence in executing that part of his game. It’s the only real explanation; the 76ers are a good but not great defensive team. He isn’t being swallowed up by a top-tier defender. White just isn’t attacking and seems hesitant when he does have an open shot. For the playoffs, he’s only averaging 2.8 shot attempts per game from inside the arc and has dropped to 3.4 assists per night.
As a result, his average plus-minus for the series is +1.4 after he finished the regular season at +7.8. Everyone goes through tough stretches on offense and for White it must feel like this stretch is lasting an eternity. But the way he’s playing right now is far closer to replacement-level than top-tier third option—and that is a very significant issue for the Celtics beyond the scope of this immediate series.
White playing poorly means Boston doesn’t have any established two-way players behind its star duo. Payton Pritchard is a firebomb offensively but can only hold his own on defense, not make game-changing plays. Sam Hauser is a lesser but similar case. Behind them the Celtics have a cadre of young wings who all showed glimpses during the regular season but haven’t earned enough of coach Joe Mazzulla’s trust yet to get a long leash in the playoffs—and none of them can reach the territory White can when he’s on his game. Without him this team just doesn’t have enough firepower to beat the best teams and are clearly struggling to even just put away the No. 7 seed Sixers.
White has to snap out of it. He must continue to try to make plays even if the shot doesn’t come around as one of the roster’s best passers. Or the Celtics will be forced to watch as Brown and Tatum drown under the attention of opposing defenses every night without help.
That will lead to an early playoff exit, one that would be seen as a disappointment no matter how Boston already exceeded preseason expectations.
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