Holiday and White combined for nine 3-pointers and 40 points, ensuring the Celtics would end their second West Coast road trip this month on a positive note. They responded from a ghastly performance against the Lakers with a quality 122-107 win against Dallas.
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These weren’t the same Mavericks the Celtics faced in the NBA Finals. Perennial All-Star Luka Doncic and rising center Dereck Lively II were out with injuries, but this team beat the Thunder three times without Doncic, including on Thursday.
This was a significant game for the Celtics after that listless performance against the Lakers. They took their assignment and opponent seriously Saturday, and the return of Holiday and White as scorers was an encouraging sign.
White fought off a 1-for-7 first half and scored 18 of his 23 points in the second. For the first time in weeks, he looked comfortable from beyond the arc. He shot with confidence and without hesitancy.
When White is shooting well and playing with fortitude, it unlocks the Boston offense.
“The way we get him looks is just empower him,” coach Joe Mazzulla said. “And make sure that he’s aggressive. I love watching him do that and it’s great to watch his teammates empower him because they know that we need him. Nothing more than just continuing to make sure he finds ways to be aggressive.”
White’s 3-point percentage has dipped in each month, and even after making 4 of 10 on Saturday, it’s 31.1 percent in January. He has been one of the team’s most stabilizing forces the past two-plus seasons and when he’s not right, the Celtics aren’t right.
Holiday’s shooting numbers are beginning to return to form after a rough few months. He’s up to 39 percent from beyond the arc in January and his five 3-pointers were a season high. When Tatum and Brown dribble and dish to White and Holiday in the corners, they can burn overaggressive defenses.
-“That’s why we have the team that we have, is to find that balance,” Mazzulla said. “When you get guys to be able to do that and [Kristaps Porzingis] has 18, [White and Holiday] have 20, it’s huge for us. It’s great to see those guys being aggressive. It’s great to see them handle the cross matches [defensively]handle things differently offensively. When we can find balance like that, it’s big for us.”
White is an aw-shucks, matter-of-fact player, never getting too emotional but sometimes allowing doubt and insecurity to creep in when he’s not playing well. This season has been a grind for White, who has become an indispensable part of this team because of his shooting, ability to defend, and shot blocking. He’s been solid in those other two categories, but needed a night like this offensively.
He pointed to his only 3-pointer of the first half, a corner shot in front of the Celtics bench, as the key to his resurgence.
“I made the one in the corner and I think the whole team was behind me and supporting me,” he said. “And it just takes one to get hot and I just had that mind-set.”
When asked about his struggles, White attributed the change in offense with the return of Porzingis and “that changes some things and I’ve shot it like crap, so those two things come together and you don’t score very many points. Just going to continue to do what I need to do to be prepared, just know that it’s going to turn, and try to make shots when I’m wide open.”
Mazzulla has been trying to reinforce his confidence in White with encouragement, reiterating to him how good of a shooter he really is. White is too good to be sub-32 percent from the 3-point line, especially when he’ll get his share of wide-open looks because of the defensive emphasis on Tatum and Brown.
White and Holiday have to knock down those shots. On Saturday, they did, giving the Celtics the offensive balance that makes them more difficult to defend.
“I’m always pushing D-White to be aggressive because him being aggressive on both offense and defense is a great sign for our team,” Brown said. “It just makes him a threat and makes everything kind of flow easier for us. He hasn’t gotten the same amount of looks or he hasn’t been as confident recently. Today was a good sign and we’ve got to keep building on that.”
Saturday was indeed a good sign. The Celtics responded from their porous loss to the Lakers with a sparkling final three quarters, and their valuable backcourt played as it did most of last season. The next step is to put together more nights like this.
Gary Washburn is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him @GwashburnGlobe.
