The good news was that White picked up the ball.
The bad news was that the shot clock was about to expire.
Without a second thought, White rose up two steps beyond the three-point line and forced up an incredibly difficult deep three over Strus's contest.
But surprisingly, it actually went in.
The ball spun rapidly as it sailed through the arena, then plunged straight through the net.
It was even a clean swish!
Derrick White! He buried the deep three!
At the crucial moment, it was still the "White Emperor" who stepped up to save the Celtics!
His incredibly difficult bailout three stretched their lead back to four points!
Then possession returned to the Knicks.
Just as they were building some serious momentum, someone had thrown cold water over them again. That had to sting.
Chen Xi dribbled into the frontcourt, signaling for his teammates to move as he advanced, then passed to George before the on-ball double-team arrived.
He stepped over toward George and faked a dribble handoff.
With the enormous offensive threat he posed right now, he drew both defenders away from George in one move.
Then Paul George put the ball on the floor and drove into the paint, drawing Robert Williams before passing to Hartenstein.
Hartenstein caught it and went up for a layup.
Surprisingly, he missed.
Fortunately, Hartenstein immediately used his favorable position to grab the rebound, then drew a defensive foul from Robert Williams on his second attempt.
At the free-throw line, he came through by sinking both shots, making up for his mistake.
Hartenstein clenched his fists hard. With the whole team pulling together and giving everything to close the gap, he did not want to waste an easy scoring opportunity like that.
The gap was back down to two, and