There were a few times, even if you were not happy to be inside the building, even when you were looking through a television screen, when it finally felt like a Madison Square Garden basketball with an honest to good thing game, and it was like listening to an old tune you last heard years ago. The lyrics all quickly returned to you.
There was one series, early in the game, when Nerlens Noel completed an alley; roared the crowd. There was another early second quarter, when Obi Toppin stole the ball from Draymond Green, jumped to the other side and grabbed an alie-open feed from Alec Burks; the crowd thunder, real thunder, real noise, not out of a can.
There were a few moments in the fourth, while the Knicks tried to make an unlikely comeback from 13, and the Warriors suddenly could not knock water out of a boat, and the 2000 people turned it around until 1994, all the road back to 1973, and crowns an old chestnut brown:
“DEEEEE FENCE!
DEEEEE FENCE!
DEEEEE FENCE! ”
Those were the good things. It was the A side of the night, along with Julius Randle’s prelude to the crowd, and the crowd tried to drown him with songs from ‘M! V! P !! M! V! P !! “Along with that fourth quarter, when the Knicks pushed it through 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, and Steph Curry finally let the festivity, as he pleases, shoot dead with a few clutches. There was the start of the game and the start of the third quarter, when the Knicks looked like they were playing with bad tackies.
“We did not always match the intensity of the game,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said.
There may have been uneven ministry work – at least the Knicks thought so, and it led to Randle leaving a second technical foul and expulsion on a night that should have ended, starting with his inclusion in the All-Star Game. When he finished walking through the tunnel to the dressing room, the first unprintable songs of the year tumbled from the garden seats.
“Uncalled,” Randle said over his thumb.
So the 2000s who undertook the famous pilgrimage to the old gymnasium on top of Penn Station departed as they had mumbled and mumbled so frequently over the past few years, wondering where the phenomenal version of Immanuel Quickley (1-for-5 shooting ) was, wondering where the significantly improved version of RJ Barrett (1-for-9, though he caught 10 rebounds) was. But also: fueled by a typical Knicks game of this season 2020-21, especially when they pushed the defense up. There is no denying that they are trying. Some nights are enough to try.
Just not tonight.
In the end, they missed out on a second consecutive attempt to compare their record at 500 for the season, on an evening that would have felt so appropriate given the environment and the mood.
“We have to be a 48-minute team,” Thibodeau said. ‘Sometimes you will have problems if you lose focus at all against such a team. You have to be ready. The way we started the game proved it. ”
So too the way they ended it. And lo and behold: it was the unspoken contract that Knicks fans signed with this team a few months ago, before one of them could see it at all. They understand that there will be such nights. They seem to have peace of mind with the emotional glove that this imperfect team will offer so many nights.
“It was everything you could dream of,” said Randle, whose wife and son were in the house, and whose mother delivered a video message from her home in Dallas, showing his typical 25-point, 10 rebounds and star-studded game. had seven. help.
“It all came about. It was honestly incredible. Everything I signed up for, all the goals I wrote down when I joined the Knicks, it all happened. It was a wonderful moment for me and my family. ”
On Thursday, the highly regarded Kings come to the Garden and the Knicks will try to make another turn to climb back in the direction of 500. Two thousand fans will be there again and will surely take every opportunity to get their voting blocks until mid-season to strengthen. Maybe the Knicks could be a 48-minute team on Thursday. That would be a great way to say thank you.