Guard Derrick White certainly aided in Boston's regular-season success. He had himself a year to remember on the defensive end of the court, which earned him his first-career NBA All-Defensive First Team nod with 58 votes, the NBA announced Friday. White, who stands at 6-foot-4, recorded a career-high 98 blocks and 88 steals. He was the fourth Celtic in franchise history to record those numbers and the first to record 75-plus blocks and 75-plus steals since Kevin Garnett.
The Celtics have had success picking 27th before. Then president of basketball operations Danny Ainge took Robert Williams with that pick in the 2018 draft. More recently, Boston has found success near the end of the first round with players like Payton Pritchard (26th overall in 2020) and Hugo Gonzalez (28th overall in 2025).
I just witnessed the best all around team performance in the NBA Playoffs so far by the Boston Celtics in their victory over the Philadelphia 76ers 128-96! Their defense was amazing and offensively they made a total of 24 3's!
Pritchard hurt the Sixers in a lot of ways schematically on Sunday - he fractured their pick-and-roll defense both when they dropped and when they briefly and unsuccessfully tried to trap him.
For me, the decision had something that was deeper than just the basketball stuff of it, and it's something that at some point I'll share with people, but for me it felt like it was the time to go elsewhere.
Scheierman exploded in the third for 14 points, which included four 3-pointers - each seemingly increasing in difficulty, until finally, he lofted a 30-foot rainbow step-back jumper over Goga Bitadze that hit nothing but net in a way that only the best shooters on a heater seem able to achieve.
The Thunder's dominance is evident with their odds at +120, indicating they have been a formidable team throughout the season and are expected to continue their success.
