Fans at Madison Square Garden for first time in nearly a year, but Knicks fall to Golden State
The doors to Madison Square Garden opened up Tuesday night, fans lining up to find their way in for the first time in nearly a year. When the fans had made their way to their carefully-curated-for-social-distancing seats, the lights went out at the Garden and Julius Randle stepped to center court, taking the microphone.
"New York New York what’s up?" Randle said. "We’re finally here. Been a long time coming."
Before he could continue he had to wait for chants of, "M-V-P, M-V-P," to die down, smiling as he soaked in the sounds that had been missing since March 8, 2020, the last time the Knicks hosted fans at home. When the fans last were present to watch the Knicks there were regular chants of, "Sell the team."
But if time, along with the relative success of this year’s incarnation of the team, has made the hearts of the fan base grow fonder, it didn’t exactly follow to a storybook ending. The Knicks saw another attempt to reach .500 fail as they fell to Golden State, 114-106, and just hours after he’d been serenaded with MVP chants Randle left in the final minute, tossed for his second technical foul.
Randle, who was named officially to the All-Star Team just shortly before game time, has been the Knicks leader this season and he was this time, too, not just with his play, but with his frustration. He was hit with a pair of technicals, coach Tom Thibodeau got another and most of the rest of the team was grumbling just low enough to avoid fines along with them.
"It was tough," Randle said. "I think it was really uncalled for. But I’ll just leave it at that. It was definitely tough. But I’m not going to let him dictate how the night goes. I’m more upset how we lost the game. I feel like I could’ve done better, we could’ve done better as a team."
The fans were scattered throughout the arena, from the upper reaches of the blue seats down to courtside, with even celebrities in place - former Giants’ standout Justin Tuck at center court with Tracy Morgan in the grouping next to him.
"It’s the first step back to normalcy to be able to have your family come but also more important, it’s our fans," Thibodeau said. "We’re excited about that and it will grow."
"Right from the jump you could tell they were excited the way they were cheering for us," Derrick Rose said. "You kind of forget how much the energy you get and bounce you get when fans are in the building. We hope things keep improving and keep letting more fans in. You can tell the city is excited and waiting to come to some games."
For much of the night it was Randle along with Elfrid Payton keeping them close. But on the Garden stage, Steph Curry once again flourished with 37 points.
With the Knicks trailing by as many as 12 in the second half Randle tied the score at 97 with 3:50 left, fighting his way through three defenders under the rim. But Curry answered with a three to push Golden State in front again.
RJ Barrett, who was 1-for-9 from the field, was fouled on a fast break and missed the first one before hitting the second to close within 102-100 with 1:26 remaining. Out of a timeout Curry spun into the lane and hit a one-handed floater, drawing a foul on Taj Gibson for a three-point play and a 105-100 lead with 1:22 left.
Home hasn’t always been kind to the Knicks with the fans willing to express their dissatisfaction with the struggles on and off the court with a franchise that was beset with dysfunction. More than that, the Garden is still revered as the Mecca by opposing players who look at the opportunity to play in New York and in the historic arena as a chance to carve their own place in history.
"Even just having a couple thousand fans just feels more normal, more real," Golden State coach Steve Kerr said. "The crowd noise actually shows up at the exact right time and not canned laughter like in sitcom-type stuff. … We always love coming here. This is the Mecca."
Steve Popper covers the Knicks for Newsday. He has spent nearly three decades covering the Knicks and the NBA, along with just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
