It didn’t take much imagination to imagine what those final two minutes of the third quarter would have been, sounded, looked like, gone. If you remember what Madison Square Garden becomes when the Knicks are not only playing well, but fans believe they are interested in playing well …
Yes you know. Do you remember. Intellectually, you knew that the Garden was empty on Wednesday night, but when the Knicks turned 73-68 into 78-75 up, while polishing a 10-2 run that looked like it was pulled from the 90s file, you I could almost hear the calls raining down from the cheap seats, up to the side of the court.
“DEEEEE- THINK! DEEEEE- THINK! “
How Kevin Knox blocked a shot, how Austin Rivers did a robbery, how RJ Barrett hit a house to punctuate everything with 8.1 seconds remaining in the room, you could summon the bubbling, swirling and echoing bang that would try to keep Jazz out of the court , all the way to the bus. Those moments in the Garden, the best moments, you swear you can see the momentum sway for the home team.
“It’s so unfortunate that we can’t have our fans being part of it,” Julius Randle would say later, after the Knicks drilled Utah, 112-100 – beating Jazz by 30 points after identifying them with a 52-34 lead at the end of the second quarter.
Randle would have given customers something to look good and hoarse, delivering what is becoming his line of routine nighttime statistics: 30 points, 16 rebounds, seven assists, a rating of over-25. Later, of course, it would be Rivers, who became a phenomenon in the fourth period, who scored 14 consecutive points to help turn a 96-96 draw into a 110-100 lead, knocking down four consecutive 3s.
At this point, the Garden would appear to be about to collapse into its foundation. You do this a few times a year when you have a team like this, a team that captures the attention of the faithful in the same way that it did in those first eight games. Seeing the Knicks bench go crazy – Immanuel Quickley and Barrett watching and cheering happily on their warm-ups – gave an idea of what it would have been like.
“I know the Garden would be swinging,” Randle said. “That’s what we all signed up for.”
What the Knicks fans signed up for – what they longed for – is a team that looks a lot like this one. Every night something else comes to enjoy. In the last two games, the Knicks fell into big holes – 15 in Atlanta on Monday, 18 against Jazz on Wednesday – and both times they didn’t just figure out how to turn an explosion into a nail rodent, they found out how win both games.
“The NBA is a long game,” said coach Tom Thibodeau. “You can gain ground quickly. No leadership is secure and no deficit is impossible to overcome. “
Rivers said, “The guys had a sense of urgency. They started talking, saying, ‘We will hunt them down step by step.’ We knew we didn’t need a home run, we are just going to play basketball, and then everyone started having fun, competing, one thing led to another and then it was a ball game again. “
It was a ball game again, and then it was a fourth draw and move, Jazz trying to keep his legs in the second half of a straight fight (after being smoked in Brooklyn on Tuesday night), the Knicks waiting that his own legs survive the rotation of eight men that the injuries of the beginning of the season forced.
And this is the incredible thing about this team: you could almost understand if, at the beginning of the season, the players supported each other enthusiastically, begging the crowds to get them through. But as much as you want to imagine it all as a fan, the truth of the players is this: it’s like playing in an open gym in high school, no one watching, except for each other and a few people spread out cutting the gym from the cafeteria to the lab of biology.
You know what you’re missing.
But they know what they are missing too.
“I keep trying to imagine that,” said Rivers, who finished with 23 points in 32 minutes. “I can imagine what it was like when I played against them. The fans here have so much energy, I can’t wait. It will happen. Hopefully, in the future, we will get people back here. This is the best place to play basketball and everyone knows it. “
He shook his head.
“Those lights are falling, the darkness is …
“There is nothing like that.”
Yes you know. Do you remember.