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Derrick White #9 of the Boston Celtics

The Boston Celtics will head to Philadelphia for Game 3 vs. the Sixers in their first-round series of the East playoffs, and they’ll do so in a 1-1 tie, needing to cop at least one road win to get back  homecourt advantage in the series. Certainly, after the drubbing the Celtics handed to the Sixers in Game 1, a convincing 32-point win, it looked like this would not be much of a series. But the Celtics, with Derrick White going 2-for-10 from the arc, were out of sorts in Game 2, and could not knock down the 3-pointers they typically make, coming away with a 14-point loss.

A 46-point swing between playoff games is certainly unusual, but for the Celtics, there must be some diagnosing exactly what happened with the team in that second game. They shot just 39% for the game, and made only 13-of-50 attempts from the 3-point line, a measly 26%.

Defensively, they were well torched by the backcourt of Tyrese Maxey (29 points) and rookie VJ Edgecombe (30 points), and will need adjustments there, too.

Celtics’ Derrick White Continues His Shooting Woes

For White, the slip-ups in both areas are on his shoulders, and he is accepting that responsibility. White has struggled with his shooting badly to open the Celtics’ postseason run, as he has shot just 7-for-22 from the field and 4-for-17 from the 3-point line.

That is part of a wider troubling trend when it comes to White. On the season, White has had his worst performance as a shooter with the Celtics, making only 39.4% of his shots and 32.7% from the 3-point line. Lost in the enthusiasm of the Celtics’ surprising season and the return of Jayson Tatum has been the White struggles–he closed the season 34-for-110 on 3-point tries in his last 17 games, just 31%.

Derrick White: ‘Trying to Take What’s Given’

White addressed his struggles after the Celtics lost Game 2. Again, the team’s performance was unusual in that one–but White’s poor shooting has become a rolling concern in Boston.

At practice on Wednesday, White told reporters (via CelticsWire): “I’m just trying to take what’s given, honestly. Just looking to space the floor, and when you get a shot, you have to take it. Honestly, I just have to play better and so that’s all I’m focused on for Game 3.”

He continued: “When you lose a game in the playoffs you feel like it’s the end of the world. You see there’s these little pockets of the game here that you see, this is why we were losing, and why they went on a run. You see what plays we should’ve made and could’ve made that might’ve changed the whole game, and you can get that from a win but they say it’s easy to learn from a loss and all those little plays that go into winning and losing are things we can control.”

Celtics Will Miss Joel Embiid Again

One bit of news for the Celtics did come in on the Sixers injury report, noting that big man Joel Embiid continues to be out as he recovers from an emergency appendectomy. Embiid won’t play in Game 3, leaving the Sixers to continue to wrestle with the absence of their franchise player.

There is hope that Embiid could play later in the series.