9 takeaways as Derrick White helps lift Celtics to Game 2 win over Hawks
The Celtics once again looked like a matchup nightmare for the Hawks.
The Celtics took a 2-0 lead in their first-round series against the Hawks on Tuesday with another comfortable win — this time a 119-106 victory.
Here are the takeaways:
1. After scoring 22 points in Game 1, Derrick White was a menace again on Tuesday — piling up 26 points on 11-for-16 shooting to go with seven rebounds, two assists, and three blocked shots. When the Celtics acquired him, the hope was that he would be able to make an outsized impact playing next to stars like Tatum and Brown, but so far in this series (and for an eyebrow-raising amount of the regular season), White has been something like a third star — a reliable 3-point shooter whenever he’s open who can get downhill to the basket when necessary and lock up guards like Hawks’ star Trae Young.
Joe Mazzulla noted that White — along with Marcus Smart — often gets the Celtics into their offense quickly.
“He has the ability to handle, the ability to play, and when Smart and Jayson [Tatum] and Jaylen [Brown] are creating advantages for others, and he is a beneficiary of those advantages at times, he does a great job of taking advantages of those,” Mazzulla said.
At one point in the fourth quarter, as White went to the free-throw line, Celtics fans serenaded him with “M-V-P” chants.
“We talked about it after the game,” Tatum said. “He was like, ‘That’s what it feels like?’ I was like, ‘Yeah, I guess.’”
White said he has grown significantly more comfortable over the course of the season.
“Even during the regular season, it was JB in timeouts like, ‘C’mon, D, be aggressive. Come on, do what you do,’” White said. “So it’s cool to hear that from [Brown and Tatum]. They all empowered me to go out there and play my game.”
2. Tatum led the Celtics in scoring with 29, and he dished out six assists as well. Late in the game, the Hawks started doubling in an attempt to speed things up, but Tatum in particular handled it well and jumpstarted the Celtics’ offense with his passing.
“His patience to be able to accept that — that allows us to get to our spacing,” Mazzulla said. “And usually when that happens, there’s three 2-on-1s and you just have to find the right one.”
The Hawks are struggling mightily to solve the Tatum conundrum, especially since De’Andre Hunter can’t do much about the Celtics’ star 1-on-1. Without anyone who can credibly match up with Tatum, the Hawks’ defense runs the risk of being scrambled as soon as he catches the ball. Given all of the other mismatches on the floor, that’s yet another difficult puzzle for Quin Snyder to solve.
3. While the Hawks didn’t mount much of a challenge in either Game 1 or 2, they did beat the Celtics in several key areas on Tuesday. Most notably, after out-rebounding the Celtics on the offensive glass just 14-12 on Saturday, they finished with a much healthier 19-5 advantage in Game 2. They also took 48 3-pointers to 33 by the Celtics (although they made only one more than the Celtics).
“As good as it feels, we haven’t gotten better in two games because we’re not able to control the shot margin the way we need to,” Mazzulla said. “They are doing a great job of taking away our threes, while they are kind of unleashing their guys and taking more. So we have to do a good job at not turning it over, and we’re doing a great job of defending without fouling, and there are still I’d say 8-10 rebounds that we could do a better job of coming up with.”
4. The Celtics’ bigs were both impactful, despite having relatively quiet games offensively. Al Horford continued to space Clint Capela to the 3-point line and was the recipient of this bullet pass from Jayson Tatum — burying a triple that essentially sent the game into garbage time.
“I threw it angry because I was trying to get it there,” Tatum said. “I knew it was two seconds or less and I didn’t want them to deflect it or intercept it. I tried to get it there in time in order for him to get a good shot off.”
Meanwhile, Robert Williams missed his first shot of the series in the first half, but he was excellent for the second consecutive game — affecting shots around the rim and gobbling up defensive rebounds on an evening when the Celtics struggled to put an end to Hawks possessions. Williams finished with eight points, five rebounds, and two blocked shots, and was part of a balanced Celtics scoring attack that outscored the Hawks 64-40 in the paint. Having him healthy for roughly 25 minutes per game is a massive improvement over last year, when he returned early from meniscus surgery and appeared to be dragging his leg all over the floor.
5. Jaylen Brown had a pretty cool pair of shoes ready to go for Game 2.
Brown — who finished with 18 points and three steals — exited the game holding his hand in the second half, but he told reporters afterward that he feels fine.
6. The Hawks were significantly better with Trae Young on the bench on Tuesday and made their big run to close the gap largely with him on the bench.
Young had another poor shooting performance — 24 points, 9-for-22 shooting, 2-for-8 from 3, five turnovers — and he was once again the Celtics’ primary target on the defensive end, finishing a team-low minus-18 in the box score. The only other Hawks starter to finish in the negatives was Clint Capela (minus-5).
As a result, as Young stepped to the free-throw line in the fourth quarter, Celtics fans serenaded him with hearty chants of “overrated.” This series is a brutally tough matchup for the undersized guard.
7. The Hawks spent a lot of time hunting Sam Hauser defensively in the first half, and it didn’t go particularly well. De’Andre Hunter and Young in particular struggled to beat Hauser off the bounce, which slowed the Hawks’ offense to a crawl.
The Hawks are not the first team to bog down their offense with the promise of attacking Hauser, nor are they likely to be the last, but the results so far haven’t been particularly encouraging.
8. Dejounte Murray saved the Hawks from being blown out in the third quarter with 13 of his 24 points and three of his seven triples. After one jumper, Murray turned to the Celtics bench and appeared to start barking at Joe Mazzulla.
What did he say?
“He just asked how my day was going,” Mazzulla deadpanned. “He’s a great kid, he’s a great guy. I’ve gotten to know him just through a lot of the people from the Spurs organization, and he was putting on a hell of a show.”
9. The series now shifts back to Atlanta for the next two games. Game 3 tips off at 7 p.m. on Friday.
“We took a great shot from Atlanta tonight,” Brown said. “I thought we responded well by moving the ball. Different guys stepped up and made plays, and that’s what we’re going to need in the playoffs. Now going on the road, we’ve got to take that same mentality and look to be aggressive in a tough Atlanta environment.
“This is a part of the journey. Two games up is great taking care of home. But being able to win games on the road is going to ultimately make you a championship team. So this is the first test and I’m looking forward to it.”
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