All you had to do was look around Madison Square Garden and it was obvious that your ears were lying to you, it had to be. On a good night, in normal times, they can squeeze 19,812 in here, and when you give them a good reason, they can turn your eardrums into dust.
About 17,812 of these places were unoccupied, while the last seconds were bleeding the hour Tuesday night. After all, we are still a few steps away from normalcy, even if there is the promise of reinforcements, which means that it is closer to 5,000 capacities for the post-season.
However, while Derrick Rose dribbled his watch …
Damn if it doesn’t sound like the Garden inside. Damn if it doesn’t sound like it should sound like a big spring night here. Damn if the collective stamp of just under 2,000 people doesn’t sound like a rally … well, 10 times more than that number.
The Knicks finished a 109-97 beating of the Hornets, the first half of a back-to-back show that will include a meeting with the Hawks on Wednesday.
For the first time all year, the Knicks were playing what felt like a playoff game, because, in essence, it was. There are a lot of teams from 4-10 in the east, and the Knicks are one of them, as are the Hornets. Teams in the top six when the music stops on May 16 will avoid the play-in. It is an excellent goal.
And this was an excellent test.
“Whoever we play against is the most important game, because it’s coming,” said Rose, who was scared of this cheerful walk on the carpet in progress, but made sure to enjoy the trip as much as possible.
“I saw a winning mentality here,” he said. “Every team that plays against us knows that it will be a difficult game, a hard fought game and you have to bring everything that is best. Seeing this from afar, I wanted to be a part of it. ”
And that’s part of it now: a team with a 32-27 record, a team that won seven in a row, a team that slipped past the Celtics and finished fifth with Tuesday night’s victory, a team that on Wednesday a will have the opportunity to take the No. 4 away from the Hawks – both teams playing back-to-back, both teams competing for the title of the biggest surprises in the NBA this year.
On Tuesday, you could see all this. You could hear all this. The Knicks quarreled in the first 24 minutes, allowing the Hornets to bury them almost 69%, pulling past the 3-point line. But the Knicks wouldn’t be buried. Have returned. RJ Barrett, who couldn’t buy a shot earlier, couldn’t miss it. His 24 points in 40 minutes included six 3s.
Its improvement, up to a week – sometimes at play – remains a sight to behold.
“It was a lot of hard work,” Barrett said.
Mirror the team. There was no reasonable prognosis that would have seen them play a game in what officially qualifies as the end of April for a first class of four, and yet we are here. There was no way to believe that the Garden, after years of neglect, will be a place where joy and hope and genuine optimism will find a foothold.
And yet here it is: the last seconds of another victory at home were disappearing in time, the fans standing, the fans making enough noise that, if you close your eyes, you can almost believe the lie. Because it sure sounded like a flood. That’s what important basketball should sound like. And feel it.
“It’s important for us not to get lost,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said, trying hard to temper what becomes an astonishing story going on. “When you start thinking about the road, the winning strips, you can forget about Atlanta. It’s easy to miss the course.
“Concentration and concentration are all that give you intensity. We need to focus on what we have in front of us. ”
There is little to worry about there. Rose and Julius Randle have Thibodeau’s back on the floor, they won’t let their colleagues dream with their eyes open. Even 20-year-old Barrett has an old-school, old-school mentality that contradicts his birth certificate. I know good times are not guaranteed. But I also know them when I see them.
Or, as was the case on Tuesday night, when they heard them.