Derrick White entered Thursday night’s game against the New York Knicks with 98 blocks and 206 made three-pointers, leaving him two blocks from a milestone no player in NBA history has reached in the same season. The Boston Celtics and Knicks tipped off at 7:30 p.m. ET at Madison Square Garden on Prime Video, with Boston trying to clinch the Eastern Conference’s No. 2 seed.
If White gets there, he would become the first player ever to finish a season with at least 100 blocks and 200 three-point makes. Insights flagged the possibility before the game, and the numbers show why: White was averaging a career-high 16.7 points per game, ranked 18th in the league in made threes and 13th in blocks.
That combination is what makes White so unusual. He had 86 steals and 408 assists entering Thursday, and he was eight rebounds away from setting another personal best, another sign of how much of the floor he has covered for Boston this season. The nine-year veteran has built a profile around doing a little of everything, and last month Cleveland Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson went so far as to call him a top-five player in the NBA.
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The blocks chase also puts White in rare company even before the broader milestone comes into view. Among players listed at 6-foot-5 or shorter, only Dwyane Wade’s 106 blocks in 2008-09 and David Thompson’s 99 in 1977-78 have topped White’s current total, a mark that underscores how far he has pushed past the usual guard and wing numbers.
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Boston’s final push for the No. 2 seed gives the game added weight, but White’s season has already become one of the most unusual statistical lines in the league. Two more blocks would put him in position for a piece of NBA history that has never been claimed before.
