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Derrick White Bloodied After Smashing His Face Off the Court in Game 5

White chipped a tooth on the play.

Stephen Douglas

Derrick White's face meets the floor during Celtics - Mavericks Game 5.
Derrick White's face meets the floor during Celtics - Mavericks Game 5. / ESPN on ABC

The Boston Celtics had a huge first half against the Dallas Mavericks in Game 5 of the NBA Finals. Boston took a 67-46 lead into halftime thanks to grit, hustle, hardwork and actually making three-pointers for a change. After making just 33.9% of their threes coming into Game 5, the Celtics made 10-of-21 attempts in the half.

As for the hustle, Derrick White dove for a basketball and had his face smushed into the floor when Dereck Lively II fell on top of him. White was slow to get up as he checked to see how many teeth were remaining in his mouth and tried to keep all of his blood in his mouth.

White basically did it all in the first half as he accounted for three of the Celtics' shots from long distance. Also, the whole scraficing his body thing. Between this and Kristaps Porzingis somehow making it back into the rotation in Game 5, Boston was definitely doing whatever they had to close out the series. Joe Mazzulla had to love it and White understands that.

UPDATE: White may have chipped a tooth. Maybe.

Published |Modified
Stephen Douglas
STEPHEN DOUGLAS

Stephen Douglas is a Senior Writer on the Breaking & Trending News Team at Sports Illustrated. He has been in journalism and media since 2008, and now casts a wide net with coverage across all sports. Stephen spent more than a decade with The Big Lead and has previously written for Uproxx and The Sporting News. He has three children, two degrees and one now unverified Twitter account.

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