All you had to do was look around Madison Square Garden and it was obvious that your ears were lying to you, they had to be. On a good night, in normal times, they can squeeze 19,812 in here, and when you tell them a good reason, they can turn the eardrums into dust.
About 17,812 of those seats were unoccupied as the last seconds bled on Tuesday night. After all, we are still in a couple of courts to complete normalcy, even if there is the promise of reinforcements, that is, closer to the capacity of 5,000 for the postseason.
Still, while Derrick Rose dribbled his watch …
Damn if it didn’t sound like the garden here. Damn if it didn’t sound like it should sound like a big spring night here. Damn if the collective ringing of just under 2,000 people didn’t sound like a reunion … well, ten times that number.
The Knicks were finishing a 109-97 beating against the Hornets, the first half of a back-to-back show that will include a date with the Hawks on Wednesday.
For the first time all year, the Knicks played what looked like a playoff game, because, in essence, it was. There are a multitude of teams from 4 to 10 in the east, and the Knicks are one of them, and the Hornets too. Teams in the top six when the music stops on May 16 will avoid playback. It’s an excellent goal.
And it was an excellent test.
“Whoever plays against him is the most important game because he’s the next one,” said Rose, who jumped on that cheerful carpet ride but has made sure to enjoy the trip as much as possible.
“I saw a winning mindset here,” he said. “All the teams that play against us know that it will be a tough match, a hard-fought match and that you have to play your best. Seeing this from afar, I wanted to be part of it ”.
And that’s part of it now: a team with a 32-27 record, a team that has won seven in a row, a team that has slipped ahead of the Celtics and finished fifth with victory Tuesday night , a team that on Wednesday will have a chance to pull out the No. 4 Hawks, both teams playing back to back, both teams competing for the NBA’s biggest surprise title this year.
On Tuesday, all of that could be seen. You could feel it all. The Knicks faced off for the first 24 minutes and allowed the Hornets to almost bury them with 69% shots from the 3-point line. But the Knicks would not be buried. They returned. RJ Barrett, who couldn’t buy a shot early, couldn’t miss it late. His 24 points in 40 minutes included six 3s.
Its weekly improvement (sometimes by the game) is still a spectacle to watch.
“It’s been a lot of hard work,” Barrett said.
It is reflected in the team. There was no reasonable prognosis that would see them play a game in what is officially qualified as the end of April to get a series leader among the top four and yet we are here. There was no way to believe that the garden, after years of neglect, would be a place where joy and hope and true optimism would find a starting point.
And yet here it was: the last seconds of another home win were disappearing from the clock, the standing fans, the fans making enough noise that if you closed your eyes you could almost believe the lie. Because it sure sounded like a full house. This is what basketball is supposed to look like. And feel it like.
“It’s important that we don’t get lost,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said, trying to temper what is becoming an amazing story going on. “When you start thinking about the road, about winning streaks, you can forget about Atlanta. It’s easy to put aside.
“Focus and concentration are all that gives you your intensity. We have to stay focused on what lies ahead. “
There is little to worry about. Rose and Julius Randle have Thibodeau’s back on the ground, they won’t let their teammates daydream. Even twenty-year-old Barrett has an old, old-fashioned mindset that belies his birth certificate. They know that good times are not guaranteed. But they also know them when they see them.
Or, as happened on Tuesday night, when they heard them.