Malcolm Brogdon can’t say enough about his backcourt mate Derrick White originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
Derrick White did all he could to help the Boston Celtics try to beat the Milwaukee Bucks despite missing four of their top six scorers — including Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown — in Tuesday night’s game at Fiserv Forum.
White scored a team-high 27 points on 10-of-24 shooting, along with 12 assists, two rebounds and three steals in 43 minutes. He put the Celtics up 121-116 in overtime by scoring the first five points of the period, but the Bucks closed out the game on a 15-4 run to earn a 131-125 win.
The veteran guard’s performance drew plenty of praise after the game from teammate Malcolm Brogdon.
“He’s playing at an All-Star level,” Brogdon told reporters. “He’s a starter on any other team in this league. He’s proven that every single night.”
White is averaging 22.5 points on 52.2 percent shooting in seven games during the month of February. The league named him the Eastern Conference Player of the Week winner on Monday for the previous week.
“I just have the same mindset. Obviously (I got) some opportunities — 24 shots, I doubt I take 24 shots with everybody back, but just the same mindset being aggressive,” White told reporters after the game. “It might not be 27 (points every night), but still do other things out there to help us win games.”
The veteran guard has done a tremendous job running the offense in Marcus Smart’s absence. Not only is White producing offensively as the team’s high scorer in three of the last four games, he’s dishing out assists while taking care of the ball. White has tallied 32 assists and seven turnovers in the last three games.
One of the best aspects of this Celtics team is its depth, and one of the finest examples of that has been White stepping up as a leader at both ends of the court over the last few weeks.
