Film director Spike Lee reacts during the first half of...

Film director Spike Lee reacts during the first half of an NBA game between the Knicks and the Nets on Tuesday at Barclays Center. Credit: AP/Adam Hunger

A partisan crowd cheering for the other team. An arena filled with fans who have paid good money with the hopes of seeing you lose. That lonely, lonely feeling that it’s you and your team against an entire city.

NBA teams face these conditions all the time when they are on the road. The Brooklyn Nets, however, are the only team in the Eastern Conference that face this at least twice a year in their own arena.

How do you prepare your team for a road game in their own house? This, in essence, was what Nets coach Jordi Fernandez had to do for Tuesday’s 99-95 loss to the Knicks at Barclays Center. Fernandez acknowledged before the game that there would likely be a lot of Knicks fans in the arena, and he said his team could grow from it.

“If we stay together and play extremely hard, it’s a good opportunity for us to play a high-level game,” Fernandez said. “I don’t care who the fans cheer for. That’s a part of the business. I care about our fans and I care about our players. If we go out there and stay completely focused and we compete hard, we will give ourselves a chance. And that’s all we can control.”

The Knicks team that faced the Nets on Tuesday night at Barclays is a contender. The Nets? They are once again beginning a major rebuild, thanks to the five first-round picks they got when they traded Mikal Bridges to the Knicks this past offseason.

Yet, that is just a fraction of the story and doesn’t truly explain the sea of orange-and-blue at Barclays on Tuesday night. The real story here basically comes down to numbers.

Both the Knicks and the Nets have had successful, star-studded teams over the course of their histories. Both have won titles, though the Nets’ came when they were in the ABA. The biggest difference between the two is that demand for Knicks tickets is inelastic, which explains why they could sell out Madison Square Garden for a good part of the last two decades despite having mostly bad teams.

Now that the Knicks have a good team — they entered Tuesday in third place in the Eastern Conference with a 28-16 record — ticket prices are out of reach of many families, unless that family wants to travel to Brooklyn like the Abruzzo family of Old Westbury did Tuesday night.

Matteo, 12, and Luca, 15, are hard-core Knicks fans and received the tickets as a Christmas gift from their aunt and uncle. They brought along their parents, Gary and Enza, and were sitting with a group of Knicks fans in Section 114. Gary estimates that all told, with food and travel, it would cost his family of four $700 to attend the game.

Matteo, Gary, Enza and Luca Abruzzo at the Knicks game...

Matteo, Gary, Enza and Luca Abruzzo at the Knicks game at Barclays Center on Tuesday. Credit: Newsday/Barbara Barker

“At Madison Square Garden? I’d say $1,400,” he said, adding that his family had been fortunate enough to attend a few games at the Garden.

Prices on resale sites backed that up. Tuesday morning; there were tickets in the 15th row at Barclays Center for this game selling for $116 on StubHub. A comparable ticket at the Garden for a game against Sacramento was $360.

This goes a long way in explaining why Knicks fans are everywhere, except maybe Oklahoma City, which is a hard place to get to and has its own brand of hardcore fans. Knicks fans are famous for taking over visiting arenas, as 76ers fans painfully experienced in the first round of last year’s playoffs.

“I think it’s unique for New York and as you mentioned it’s not just here,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said before the game. “It seems when we do play here, obviously we have a lot of fans and we have a great fan base and they’re all over the country. So they support the team and we have great appreciation for that and we want to give them something that they can be proud of.”

There were plenty of Knicks fans cheering Tuesday night. At one point when Jalen Brunson went to the foul line in the second quarter, the arena broke out in M-V-P chants.

Only in Brooklyn.

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