Knicks ready for Boston's hostility

GREENBURGH, N.Y.

Lost in the long debate about which opponent the Knicks would be better off facing in the first playoff round was this essential contrast:

In Miami, they show up late, leave early and root nearly as much for the Knicks as the Heat.

In Boston, they do none of the above. Those who would consider doing so risk eviction from the city, if not exile from all of New England.

Let's put it this way: When the Knicks take the court at TD Garden Sunday night, they will not hear chants of "Dee-fense'' when the home team has the ball, as happened on their last visit to Miami.

"This is a whole different ballgame when you're playing in Boston," said Knicks president Donnie Walsh, whose Pacers teams faced the Celtics four times in the playoffs.

Walsh's experience goes back to the original Boston Garden. But for a relatively new arena, the TD version holds its own.

The noise meter includes a "Wicked Loud" reading as well as "Garden Level," as in the old place -- the ultimate compliment.

The good news for the Knicks is that their key players have been in enough hostile buildings in the playoffs that the risk of intimidation should be limited.

Carmelo Anthony said he enjoys it, actually.

"When you can win on the road, in front of all the boos and yelling, that makes it much better," he said. "I love it. I've been in hostile environments before, booed the whole game. To win one of those games on the road, there's no better feeling."

Anthony and his partner in frontcourt hype, Amar'e Stoudemire, figure to be the Boston fans' main targets. Bring it on, Stoudemire said. "We have to play the villain role," he said.

Naturally, the Celtics' talent is the biggest factor in making them tough to beat at home -- where they have defeated the Knicks nine straight times.

But there is no pro league in which a raucous crowd can have more effect on games, something every NBA player knows, and knows he has to overcome.

In an alternate reality in which the trade for Anthony never happened, the Knicks still might have landed the No. 6 seed and still might be playing in Boston Sunday night.

How might this season's original roster have handled that?

"I am trying to phrase it the right way because I don't want to take anything away," coach Mike D'Antoni said. "I love those guys and I would have been confident going in with them. But yeah, you have Melo and Chauncey [Billups], who have been there a lot more, you are more confident."

Point guards are the players most affected by a hostile crowd, and in that sense, the Knicks are in secure hands with Billups, a been-there, done-that veteran who began his career with the Celtics in 1997 before being traded 51 games into his rookie season.

"They're die-hards," Billups said. "They're going to say or do anything they can to try to get an advantage. And that's good, that's a good home court to have. It's loud, very loud. It's tough to call plays sometimes. But that's what this time of season is all about."

To many Knicks fans, a tough series in which the underdogs win a couple of games and at least get it back to New York's Garden for Game 6 would represent a success.

But coaches and players insist they are in it to win it. For that to happen, there must be at least one game in which they do what New York teams and their fans -- from the Yankees to the Jets and beyond -- long have relished most: Shut Boston up.