There were a few times, even if you weren’t lucky enough to be in the building, even looking through a television screen, that this finally felt like a fair-to-goodness, no kidding, Madison Square Garden basketball game, and it was like listening to an old tune you haven’t heard for years. The lyrics all came back to you quickly.
There was one run early in the game when Nerlens Noel finished an alley; the crowd roared. There was another, early second quarter, when Obi Toppin took the ball away from Draymond Green, sprinted to the other side and cashed in on a street food by Alec Burks; the crowd thundered, real thunder, real noise, not from a glance.
There were a few moments in the fourth, as the Knicks tried to make an unlikely comeback from 13 down and the Warriors suddenly couldn’t hit water from a boat that turned the 2,000 people all the way back to 1994, all the way back to 1973, and sang an old chestnut:
“DEEEEE-FENCE!
DEEEEE FENCE!
DEEEEE-FENCE! “
That was the good stuff. That was the A side of the night, along with Julius Randle’s preamble to the crowd pre-game, the crowd trying to drown him out with chants of “M! V! P !! M! V! P !! Along with that fourth quarter, when the Knicks got all the way back to 97-97, when it looked like they were really going to tie a bow tonight.
But there was also a B side. There was the final score – Golden State 114, Knicks 106, Steph Curry finally flooding the festivities, as he will, with a few late shots. There was the start of the game and the start of the third quarter, when the Knicks looked like they were playing with ill-fitting sneakers.
“We didn’t always match the intensity of the game,” said Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau.
Maybe there was some uneven officiation – or so the Knicks thought, and that led to Randle making a second technical foul and being cast out late one night that would be his, from start to finish, starting with his inclusion in the All – Star Game. He finished walking down the tunnel to the locker room and the first non-printable chants of the year tumbling from the lawn chairs.
“Not asked,” Randle said of the thumb.
So the 2000 who made the famous pilgrimage to the old gym atop Penn Station took off as they have so often in recent years, muttering and grumbling, wondering where Immanuel Quickley’s phenomenal version (1-for-5 shots) was, wondering where the much-improved version of RJ Barrett (1-for-9, although he did strict 10 rebounds). But also: boosted by a typical Knicks game from this 2020-21 season, especially when they started the defense late. There is no denying that they try. Some evenings trying is enough.
Just not tonight.
At the end, they missed in a second straight attempt to match their record at .500 for the season, on a night that would have felt so appropriate given the setting and mood.
“We have to be a 48-minute team,” said Thibodeau. “Sometimes, if you lose focus at all against such a team, you run into problems. You have to be ready. The way we started the game proved it. “
So did the way they ended it. And look: this was the unspoken contract that Knicks fans signed to this team a few months ago, before any of them could even witness it. They understand that there will be nights like this. They seem to be at peace with the emotional gauntlet that this imperfect team will provide for so many nights.
“This was all you could dream of,” said Randle, whose wife and son were in the house, whose mother delivered a video board message from her home in Dallas, who had his typical great play of 25 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists.
“It has all come to fruition. It was really magnificent. Everything I signed up for, all the goals I wrote down when I came to the Knicks, it all happened. It was a great moment for me and my family. “
On Thursday, the high-scoring kings will come to the yard and the Knicks will try to take another trick by climbing back to .500. Two thousand fans will be back, sure to take every opportunity to strengthen their larynx until mid-season. Maybe the Knicks could be a 48-minute team on Thursday. That would be a great way to say thank you.