A grab bag of leftover notes from Tuesday night’s Celtics thriller, which Boston won on a Jayson Tatum overtime buzzer-beater over the Brooklyn Nets:

George feeling ‘great’

Naturally overshadowed by Tatum’s 42-minute, 40-point, zero-turnover gem — which he capped with his first game-winning shot since his Achilles surgery — was the fact that Paul George also handled a full workload on the second night of a back-to-back.

It was speculated that Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla might shy away from using George (and potentially Tatum and center Mitchell Robinson) on consecutive nights, given the lengthy injury history the veteran wing carried with him from Philadelphia. But Mazzulla played all of his regulars in the 125-124 win over Brooklyn, and only Tatum logged more minutes than the 36-year-old George.

George’s final line: 20 points (8-for-16 shooting), seven rebounds, seven assists, two steals, three turnovers in 36 minutes.

It helped that the front end of Boston’s back-to-back was a blowout (134-99 over Chicago), which allowed Mazzulla to pull his starters early. All five played fewer than 28 minutes on Monday; George played 25.

The Celtics might have handled things differently against the Nets had their top dogs needed to play more the previous night. With five more back-to-backs on the schedule before the end of November, including four multi-city ones, Mazzulla undoubtedly will find spots to rest his most important players.

But it’s now clear that George, who played just 37 games last season and 41 in 2024-25, is not on the same maintenance plan Al Horford followed late in his Celtics tenure. The former Boston big man did not play a single back-to-back in his final three seasons with the team.

“I feel great,” George said postgame. “I think, knock on wood, those days are behind me. I’ve been feeling really good health-wise. But the main goal is to get to the end of the year and be healthy at the end of the year, so whatever it is (in terms of) approach, I’m ready for. Whether it is playing back-to-backs, whether it’s being smart approaching back-to-backs, we’ll get to that when the time is there.

“But I feel good. I feel good out there, and yeah, we’ll see how I feel tomorrow.”

Through his first four games as a Celtic, including his superb 38-point effort in the season opener at Detroit, George is averaging 22.3 points and 6.0 rebounds while shooting 43.8% on 3-pointers. As of Wednesday, only five NBA players had recorded more steals than his nine.

D-White, MVP?

The TD Garden crowd broke into “MVP” chants as a Celtics player walked to the free-throw line late in the fourth quarter.

The player: a visibly perplexed Derrick White, who could be seen asking “Me?” on NBC Sports Boston’s game broadcast.

“Confusion,” White said postgame. “I didn’t know if they were talking about JT because he passed it to me, and that makes more sense than me getting it.”

Derrick White’s reaction to MVP chants in Boston 🤣

Yes, @Dwhite921… they were for YOU!

Boston defeats Brooklyn in a nail-biter! pic.twitter.com/z1PcQaLuu8

— NBA (@NBA) October 28, 2026

Tatum had set up White on the play in question, feeding the veteran guard for a go-ahead and-one dunk with 34 seconds remaining. But the fans reprised the same chant when White was fouled on the next possession and sank two more free throws. (Those put Boston up five, seemingly securing a win, before Brooklyn capitalized on a string of Celtics errors to rally and force OT.)

“Yeah, the second time I was really confused,” said White, who worked through a shaky shooting night (5-for-15; 1-for-7 from three) to finish with 16 points, five rebounds and six assists. “You know, I’ve got a lot of love for our fans, and I appreciate it, but I was a little confused, and I let JT have it.”

Tatum was happy to let his close friend share the spotlight.

“Listen, D-White is my favorite teammate, one of my favorite people,” he said. “So that’s what I love about this city and the fans here. They know what winning basketball is, and they know when guys are contributing and doing spectacular things or maybe all the little things. They know competing, making plays, and that’s their way of putting energy into the game and into certain players. So I think it’s really cool and much deserved.”

White’s take?

“I don’t know about well-deserved, but I appreciate that,” he said. “It is special, something that you don’t want to take for granted. I remember my dad talking about Celtics games, and for the Garden to be chanting that for me, it’s always going to be special. I’ve got a lot of love for this city, and just really thankful to put on that jersey.”

Tatum done with Jaylen talk

After speaking at length about his relationship with Jaylen Brown in his previous postgame news conference, Tatum wasn’t interested in feeding that beast again Tuesday night.

Asked whether Brown responded to his text messages after the offseason trade, and if the two had spoken at all recently, Tatum replied: “I said my piece on that. I’m not going to comment on that anymore.”

Tatum clearly wants to put this storyline — which has dominated headlines for the past week — to rest. But with the first Tatum vs. Brown matchup less than two weeks away (Nov. 10 in Philadelphia), and Brown showing no interest in squashing their “lamb chop,” don’t count on that happening anytime soon.