Jayson Tatum took his first night off of the season on Wednesday, and for a half it looked like the Celtics would not miss him. They led the 1-6 Bucks 62-41 at the break and by as many as 22 points. Then Milwaukee won the third quarter 38-25, took its first lead with 6:50 left, and the Celtics had to win a close game without Tatum and with their 3s gone cold. They did, 109-102, because Derrick White kept going to the rim.
My take: White’s fourth quarter is the blueprint for closing without Tatum. Boston went 1 of 11 from three in the fourth, per ESPN’s play-by-play, and still scored 22 points. White had 11 of them, and seven came at the free-throw line. When the 3s stop falling, somebody has to get into the paint, and on Wednesday that was White.
How the fourth was won
Boston opened the quarter up 87-79 and missed its first four shots, all 3s. Milwaukee tied it at 91 and went ahead 92-91 on a Nate Ament free throw. Here is what the Celtics did from there, per the play-by-play.
| Time left | Play | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 6:29 | White makes two free throws | 93-92 |
| 6:08 | George scores, assisted by White | 95-92 |
| 4:54 | George makes two free throws | 97-96 |
| 3:06 | Queta layup, assisted by George | 99-97 |
| 2:22 | White layup and the free throw | 102-97 |
| 1:49 | White floater, assisted by Queta | 104-97 |
| 1:23 | George step-back 3 | 107-99 |
| 0:19.8 | White makes two free throws | 109-102 |
Every Boston field goal in that stretch but one was a layup or a short floater, and the exception was George’s 3. The rest of the points came at the free-throw line. White and Paul George scored 20 of Boston’s 22 fourth-quarter points, and Neemias Queta had the other two.
With Boston up 99-97, White missed a 28-foot 3, and Baylor Scheierman came up with the ball in the scramble that followed, per the Boston Herald’s Zack Cox and The Boston Globe’s Adam Himmelsbach. White cut, Scheierman found him, and White scored through the foul. Jaime Jaquez Jr. then missed two free throws at the other end, per the Globe, and White’s floater on the next trip made it a seven-point game.
White doesn’t usually live at the line
White went 9 of 9 from the line on Wednesday. Before that, he had attempted seven free throws in his first seven games combined, per ESPN’s game log. His 24 points were a season high, and he added seven assists and two blocks, per ESPN’s box score.
He did it while missing from deep. White was 1 of 7 from three on the night and is 12 of 41 for the season, per the game log. Inside the arc he was 6 of 11, and every one of those shots was a floater or a layup. That is the right read for a guard whose jumper is cold: stop waiting for it and put pressure on the rim.
George did his part, with one big flaw
After Monday’s loss in Houston, I wrote that the Celtics lost all three Tatum rest stretches without Paul George and that Wednesday was George’s night to show he could carry the offense alone. He did it early. He played the entire first quarter and scored 10 points in it, per the Globe. He finished with 25 points on 5-of-9 shooting from three, five assists and four steals, and his step-back 3 with 1:23 left put Boston up 107-99.
The flaw was the ball. George had six turnovers, and one of them led to Ament’s layup that tied the game at 91, per the Herald. Some boos followed, per the Globe. I still think George is the Celtics’ second star, and his minutes need guarding. Wednesday showed he can’t be the only creator on a Tatum night, though. White’s drives took the pressure off him in the last six minutes.
The third quarter was the real problem
Milwaukee shot 14 of 42 in the first half and 14 of 21 in the third quarter, per the play-by-play. Tyler Herro scored 17 of his 25 points in that quarter on 6-of-8 shooting. Joe Mazzulla burned timeouts at 8:40 and 6:02 of the third, per the play-by-play, and the lead still fell from 21 to five.
Out of Mazzulla’s first timeout came a group that had not played together before, per the Herald: Payton Pritchard, George, Sam Hauser, Luka Garza and Mitchell Robinson. By my count from the play-by-play, Milwaukee made all five of its shots against it and outscored it 12-7 in its 2:38 together. Robinson grabbed 10 rebounds, six of them offensive, but went 1 of 8 from the field.
Boston played double bigs for much of the night, first pairing Robinson with Garza, per the Herald, and still built a 21-point halftime lead. Putting that pairing with Pritchard, George and Hauser in the third, with neither White nor Queta on the floor, was the wrong experiment for a night without Tatum.
The fourth-quarter math, updated
Through eight games, Boston has outscored opponents 698-621 over the first three quarters and been outscored 238-208 in fourth quarters, per ESPN’s quarter scores. The Celtics have lost the fourth quarter in six of eight games, including Wednesday’s 23-22. I first wrote about it in the Celtics’ fourth-quarter problem, and a win doesn’t erase it.
What Wednesday added is a fix that doesn’t depend on shooting. In Orlando, Boston won the fourth with Tatum resting for most of it. Against Milwaukee the 3s didn’t fall, and White won it anyway by attacking.
What to watch next
Pritchard left late in the third quarter with a right-eye abrasion and did not return, per the Globe. Twelve of Boston’s 16 November games are on the road, per the Herald. The four-game trip starts Friday in Charlotte, then goes to Milwaukee on Sunday, Philadelphia on Tuesday and Toronto on Wednesday.
I want to see the drives stick around once Tatum is back. I want White attacking every time his jumper goes cold, because this team’s fourth quarters have not fixed themselves.