SALT LAKE CITY — Derrick White tied the NBA record for most blocks in a game by a guard on Tuesday, but that didn’t mean he was exempt from his teammates’ jokes. Before leaving the Boston Celtics locker room about an hour after his team’s 129-119 win against the Utah Jazz, White received an earful from Jaylen Brown.

“You’ve gotta stop getting dunked on,” Brown told his teammate. “That’s like the eighth time.”

Midway through the second quarter, Walter Clayton Jr. had become the latest opponent to posterize White. Running down the left lane in transition, Clayton surprised White by cocking his right arm back and throwing down a highlight slam.

“I was like, ‘Not again,’” Brown cracked, smiling.

With Brown, at least, it might be a running joke now that White occasionally gets dunked on. But if he does get dunked on more regularly than other players, it’s only because of how often he challenges shots around the rim. Even the lowlights prove White’s worth. Yes, Clayton dunked on him. But White was in the right spot. He jumped to contest the attempt. It didn’t work out for him that time, but his approach ensures many other plays do.

That approach allowed White to block seven shots against the Jazz, tying Dennis Johnson’s record for most blocks by a guard in a single game. Including players listed as “guard-forward” in the Basketball-Reference database, Tracy McGrady, George Gervin and Doug Christie also blocked seven shots in a game once each.

“It’s a skill,” Brown said. “And when he gets into a flow like tonight defensively, it’s like an art. It was like an art form. Just smacking guys’ shots all around.”

Most blocks in a game this season:

9 — Wemby
7 — Derrick White

Wemby is a foot taller than White. pic.twitter.com/0Ir33wSlPk

— StatMuse (@statmuse) December 31, 2025

Against most 6-foot-4 defenders, Lauri Markkanen would not have had much to worry about five minutes into the fourth quarter. As he turned the corner into the paint, the 7-1 sharpshooter had a 9-inch height advantage against White and what he thought was enough space to rise for a short jump shot. Unfortunately for Markkanen, White is one of the best shot blockers ever at his size, the rare guard who doubles as a rim protector.

Hustling to catch up to Markkanen from behind him, White began his leap as Markkanen was still planting his foot into the ground to begin his shot attempt. White slapped the ball away as Markkanen tried to release his shot.

“That’s stuff you can’t teach,” teammate Anfernee Simons said. “As much as you try to emulate what he does, you can’t teach that stuff. And he’s just so gifted at having a nose for the ball, making the right play, defensive play.”

White blocked Markkanen four times. He also got Isaiah Collier and Keyonte George. Then, with less than a minute left, White found a bit of revenge in his final block of the night. Clayton was looking to score against Hugo Gonzalez when White rotated off his man in the corner, hung in the air for a second or two and swiped away the shot with his left hand.

“Even that last block was crazy,” Simons said.

White’s blocks were all impressive. Joe Mazzulla said White’s defensive versatility stood out throughout the game.

“I think a couple of them came on ball, a couple of them came off ball,” Mazzulla said. “And so I think this year his role has grown. Tonight when we went with Derrick, Payton (Pritchard), Anfernee and Jaylen, he has to guard the other team’s best players. So he got a couple on pick-and-rolls on pull-up 3s. The beginning of the game when he’s kind of roaming and on guys that we could shift off of, he does a good job of coming in and knowing when to help and not.”

Boston expects such plays from White by now. He entered Tuesday ranked 18th in block percentage. The 17 players ahead of him were all forwards and centers. Though interior defense was seen as a potential team weakness after the Celtics lost a whole lot of rim protection over the summer, they rank second in the league in points in the paint allowed per 100 possessions, trailing only the Oklahoma City Thunder. With White’s shot-blocking ability, it’s like Boston has another big man on the court.

“It’s huge for our team,” Brown said. “It’s big for our team, making defensive plays. This game, it felt like we just started off the game, we couldn’t get some stops. And then once D-White got some blocks and got us rolling, that gave us some more momentum on defense and that propelled us to the win tonight. So D-White was great.”

White did it with his offense, too, scoring 22 of his 27 points in the second half while helping the Celtics overcome a five-point halftime deficit. With the Jazz forcing the ball out of Brown’s hands, turning him into a passer, White was able to deliver plenty of big baskets for Boston. Though Brown saw his 30-point scoring streak snapped at nine games, leaving him in a tie with Larry Bird for the franchise record, Mazzulla thought some of Boston’s success started with the All-Star wing’s decision-making. Brown handed out 10 assists.

“I thought (White) was great just penetrating,” Mazzulla said. “And I thought really it’s a credit to when you take a look at Jaylen finishing with 10 assists. They were blitzing, they were up. We did a great job not hanging onto the ball. And I thought JB started that, and then Ant (Simons), Payton (Pritchard) and Derrick did a great job of just kind of getting it side to side.

“I thought our pick-and-roll attack was really balanced. And when you did that, we were able to attack closeouts. And I thought that got Derrick downhill for some easy shots. I thought it got Ant open. I thought it got Payton open for some easy shots. And I thought the way we executed our pick-and-roll offense tonight kind of showed the best of all those guys.”

Brown considered his big playmaking effort the right way for his streak to end.

“I think it’s beautiful,” Brown said. “To end the year on a win, going into 2026, I thought it was great being able to show, like, ‘OK, you don’t want me to score the ball tonight, no problem. I’ll make plays — the right plays ‚ to my teammates.’ And we started off not making shots, but we were able to make some shots down the line.

“So I’m just trying to play the game the right way. I’m not trying to force nothing. And whatever is in front of me, I take. So I think it’s the perfect way to end the year because I think everybody knows I can score the ball going into the next year. Being able to develop, work on, improve, and display my playmaking will be big for our team going into 2026.”

White has long been in the habit of making the right play. Some of his contributions can be overlooked, but not by those charged with game-planning against the Celtics. Recently, Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said he considers White the NBA’s most underrated player. Indiana Pacers coach Rick Carlisle expressed similar thoughts when he called White one of the most underrated players in recent years.

The reasons were all on display in Utah. On top of all of his shot blocking and scoring, White finished with seven rebounds and six assists. He energized the Celtics after a slow start and closed out the Jazz with 13 fourth-quarter points.

It was White’s defense that put him in rare historical company. Johnson blocked seven shots in a game twice for the Seattle Supersonics, including once in Game 3 of the 1978 NBA Finals, before the Celtics acquired him in 1983.

“Obviously special to be mentioned alongside a kind of player like that,” White said. “And his number’s up there (in the TD Garden rafters) for a reason. And so it’s always great to be mentioned with some of the greats.”

It’s not as great to be dunked on, but that’s just one cost of doing business for rim protectors such as White. He said he didn’t remember Clayton doing anything like that while playing at Florida, where he won a national championship last season.

“I had no idea he had it like that,” White said. “That was impressive. I was shocked. I was trying to get out of the way, but it was too late. I mean, I got to talk to who did the scout around here and tell him that we need a better scout on that.”