A night of fun and frivolity before the Knicks get back to the business end

I haven’t seen a Knicks game in-person since Pat Riley was coach, one of only three times I’ve been to Madison Square Garden. One was another Knick game, pre-Riles; the others came in 2015, when a reader at P&T gifted us their ticket to an event featuring a Q&A between Phil Jackson and season-ticket holders – sort of. Last night, thanks to the generosity of a man I’ve never met in real life, I was able to catch the Knicks live as they hosted the Houston Rockets. The game paralleled the night as a whole: brilliance from start to finish, a true warren of light.  

The crowd was electric before the opening tip, well aware the home team had lost three straight to tighten the chase for the fifth seed, but the energy was supportive from the jump. The only time it dropped came by design: a pregame moment of silence in honor of Willis Reed. Mitchell Robinson nearly got faked out on the jump ball but managed to win it, and we were off. And boy were we.     

Both teams came out firing. Immanuel Quickley opened the scoring for New York (we’ll return to this storyline). A couple of Houston juniors, Kenyon Martin and Kevin Porter (no relation to Little Drummer Boy), were taking it to the Knicks. Add a third junior, Jabari Smith, and the Rockets have reasons to fancy their future.

No Rocket is more exciting, now or in the seasons to come, then Jalen Green, one of those players who can do things you don’t see every day. He drew a foul nearly dunking all over Isaiah Hartenstein that had the crowd abuzz, but for me it was a quieter moment – when Green, defended by the formidable Josh Hart, went behind the back into a hop-back baseline fadeaway. Easier said than done.

I haven’t said much about the Knicks yet because I wanted to approximate what watching this game felt like, i.e. it took a while for the Knicks to really emerge as distinct. They had some margin to play with their food; the Rockets, the league’s second-worst team by record, came in on a five-game losing streak, sporting the league’s second-worst defensive rating (and fourth-worst offensive rating).

The game was close through the first half, with the Knicks up five at the break. There are teams you don’t wanna let hang around. Plenty of Knicks teams in the past that would have suffered a brutal loss last night. Not these Rockets. Not these Knicks.

In the second half, a twist on what so many pre-Thibodeau Ls were like: both teams shot well on twos, but one was trying to spark their 3-point game with a piece of flint while the other used a flamethrower. The Knicks outscored the Rockets by 30 from deep. Four of those came from Julius Randle, who scored an efficient 26 and broke his DiMaggioesque technical foul streak at three games. Five came from this guy.

Houston’s fate was sealed as soon as Jalen Brunson was ruled out of the game as he continues to recover from his right hand injury. No Brunson meant more Immanuel Quickley, and IQ had it all figured out the second he rolled outta bed yesterday. With three minutes left in the half I looked up to see he had 18 points and was convinced someone had made a mistake. They hadn’t. Quickley finished the half with a quiet-as-a-pond 22. It wasn’t just that he was flowinig everywhere, water filling whatever space there was to score: floaters, pull-ups, catch-and-shoots, at the rim, in the paint, midrange and deep. Quickley was directing the river itself, harnessling its flow, its rises and falls. Bernstein never conducted better than IQ last night.

The second half was all New York. The two teams were unwittingly represented in a play-within-the-play: during one timeout, a man named Roy had the chance to win between $500 and $50,000. He had to make a lay-up, two free-throw line jumpers and a 3-pointer to have a shot at the $50,000 halfcourt shot. Roy put in a lay-up, easy enough since he started right under the basket. That was Houston being: competitive for a half is not an aspiration. Roy spent the next 30 seconds missing every single shot from the line, and when I say “miss” I mean imagine you were seeing double. Two rims, fuzzy, one next to the other. Roy’s shots were closer to the fake rim than the real one, and if you don’t think 19,812 boos crescendoed as he stacked bricks you’re not living in reality.

In a later timeout, a fella named James got the same shot Roy did. James made the lay-up and pretty quickly the two jumpers, too; he had 10 seconds to hit from three and get to the final shot, the halfcourt shot for $50K. Reader, he hit his last three at the buzzer. The crowd went wild. James’ halfcourt shot hit the back of the rim – not the Hollywood ending, but a good night nevertheless. That’s what it was for the Knicks, too: win #43 wasn’t an organizational goal, but it was a good night for a good team. 137-115 Knickerbockers.

Notes:

• Quickley wants to start someday. He’s got the game to do so for most teams. Could a Brunson/IQ backcourt ever be a thing?

• Every time Quentin Grimes turns up the aggression it’s like a civilization discovering agriculture. You cannot understate the impact it has on the offense; it’s an absolute leveling up. Color me especially interested in seeing how Grimes performs in the postseason. The Knicks have a lot guards who cost serious coin or who are about to. If we’re feeling better about Grimes a month from now than we do now, that’s nothing but good for their future – no matter what path they choose.

• Mitchell Robinson is enormous. Seeing him in-person, surrounded by other enormous human beings . . . he’s just huge. Andean condors got nothing on Mitch swooping in to exorcise the basketball.

• Watching the flight of the ball on Randle’s first 3-pointer as it soared before setting and swishing was art, faith and science unified in one delicious Blow-Pop of a moment.

• I’ve never noticed this watching on TV, but every time Mike Walczewski announces a player is about to take their second free throw he whispers “Ooooone shot” so softly you don’t even really hear the “shot.” I adore it.

• There is a very specific sound when a crowd cheers audacity, one that has no care for how it turns out. Quick launched a logo-ish bomb in the first half and the moment it left his hands he had the crowd in them. Few players have been as loved this long and seen that love just keep growing. As a signing and a trade piece, Marcus Morris has turned out to be one of the best Knicks in a long time.

• Deuce McBride, over a foot shooter than Alperen Şengün, blocking his shot – it wasn’t Nate Robinson/Yao Ming, but it was still pretty sweet.

• By the way, Şengün hooks his man. Constantly. I don’t know how he doesn’t foul out of every game. It’s not even subtle.

• The first Knicks game I saw was in 1991. They hosted the Jazz and won in a game that saw Jerry Sloan and Karl Malone ejected. That night I saw my guy, Patrick Ewing, matched up with an even-bigger man in Utah’s 7-foot-4 Mark Eaton. It was surreal seeing Ewing significantly shorter than somebody else. The kid in me hated it. The second time I saw them, Ewing was up against 7-foot-4 Rik Smits. Last night I got to see the 7-foot-4 Boban Marjanović live. I don’t know how many 88-inch or taller human beings have walked the earth, but I feel I’ve seen more than most.

• In ‘91 I watched the entire Jazz shootaround during the intermissions closely. I’d always wondered how accurate NBA players could be when there was no pressure or defense on them. They took shot after shot, making hundreds, missing dozens. The 2023 Rockets are, you may have guessed, not a lot like the 1991 Jazz – including not really doing much during the break. Some individual players lofted up looks – Marjanović practiced his corner threes – but it was pretty loosey-goosey. It was weird.

• Some Morgan State University singers sang a terrific national anthem. For you theory nerds, there were plenty of 6-5 suspensions and clear craftmanship with what the inner voices and harmonies were doing. Nicely done!

• The Howard University Marching Band put on a captivating halftime show. That was something.

• The number of Black & Brown faces in the crowd was the inverse the number shown whenever the scoreboard flashed around the arena showcasing fans.

• Blinking lights are as cool at 44 years as they were at 44 weeks.

• I am not often hopeful about the present or the future. The sight of pristine, cameraperson-free baselines did give me some hope. In retrospect, how ridiculous, having people right there, at such an obvious danger to the players! Now it seems obvious, but we had to get here. Fingers crossed.

• Was not expecting to hear “I Wanna Dance With Somebody” at MSG and far as I’m concerned they can play it every night. Whitney. What a gift.

The Knicks remain undefeated when I see them live, a record that’s stood nearly a third of a century. You wanna see them advance in the playoffs? Make a Kickstarter and raise some money to get your man to a playoff game. Next game is tomorrow when the Knicks host the Heat. A win goes a long way to wrapping up the five-seed and letting the team plan rest and recovery as the season winds down.