Joe Mazzulla Explains Late-Game Trust in Derrick White

Joe Mazzulla Explains Late-Game Trust in Derrick White originally appeared on NESN . Add NESN as a Preferred Source by clicking here . Derrick White shrugged off a torrid three-quarter performance to emerge as a catalyst for the Boston Celtics ’ 117-112 win over the Memphis Grizzlies on Friday, March 20.

Coming into the fourth quarter, White had scored three points on 1-of-5 shooting. However, when Joe Mazzulla made the call to sit both Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum to start the final quarter, White found himself in a sink-or-swim moment. During his postgame news conference, Mazzulla detailed his thought process behind thrusting White into such a prominent role during a close game on the road, with Boston’s three-game winning streak on the line.

“I just trust him to figure out,” Mazzulla said, via NBC Sports Boston. “I mean, he's going to make plays. He's always going to, even if he's not playing well; he's always going to wake up.

Because it's not just the scoring. I mean, he had two offensive rebounds at the end of the game. He had a couple of blocks.