The NBA is a star-driven league, but championships are still won by teams.
The Boston Celtics are three wins away from a championship after an incredible team performance Thursday night in Game 1 of the 2022 NBA Finals. On a night when Jayson Tatum shot just 17.6 percent from the floor (3 for 17), Boston got major contributions from secondary scorers like Al Horford (team-high 26 points), Derrick White (21 points) and Marcus Smart (18 points) to steal a 120-108 victory at Chase Center.
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White's scoring effort may have been the most impressive, as he came off the bench to hit a postseason career-high five 3-pointers (5 for 8) to help the Celtics storm back for the win.
In fact, White's 20 points off the bench were the most by a Celtics reserve in an NBA Finals game since Leon Powe went off for 21 points in Game 2 of the 2008 NBA Finals.
Celtics fans of a certain age should remember that game well. Like White, Powe wasn't known as much of a scorer (his 7.9 points per game during the 2007-08 season were a career high), but the second-year forward hit 6 of 7 shots in that Game 2 to help lift Boston to a 108-102 win over the Los Angeles Lakers.
The Celtics defeated the Lakers in six games to capture their first NBA title since 1986. And while Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen deservedly got most of the credit, Boston wouldn't have gotten past L.A. without the efforts of role players like Powe, James Posey (18 points off the bench in Game 4) and Eddie House (8.0 points per game in the series).
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The 2021-22 Celtics have enjoyed similar scoring depth during their postseason run, as all eight of their primary rotation players have had breakout games -- Grant Williams' 27 points in Game 7 against the Milwaukee Bucks, Payton Pritchard's 18 points in Game 1 against the Miami Heat and White's 21 points Thursday night, to name a few.
"To get 21 from him when other guys were struggling ... we needed that," Celtics head coach Ime Udoka said of White after Thursday's Game 1. "That unit kept us rolling in the fourth quarter to start and defended extremely well."
If Boston can continue that trend while getting elite play from Tatum and Jaylen Brown, it has a very good chance of raising Banner 18.