The World’s Most Famous Arena hasn’t been so nice for its tenants.
For a second straight season, the Knicks are worse at dwelling and it’s changing into troublesome to chalk it as much as coincidence. Their newest defeat Friday night time grew to become the most recent and most blatant instance — they misplaced to Bulls at Madison Square Garden inside per week of beating them twice in Chicago.
Heading into their MSG Christmas showdown in opposition to the Sixers, the Knicks are 8-9 at dwelling and 10-6 on the street. It’s the worst ratio within the NBA, and follows final season’s second-worst ratio of three fewer wins at dwelling (solely the Brooklyn Nets, who had Kyrie Irving solely on the street due to his vaccination refusal, had been worse). The NBA, it ought to be famous, produces the best dwelling benefit in main American skilled sports activities.
RJ Barrett repeated the widespread excuse Friday — which was uttered by Jalen Brunson earlier — that opponents are merely extra motivated to play at MSG
“If you were a team coming into the Garden, I’m sure you’d be fired up to play,” Barrett stated. “So, we know we’re gonna get teams’ best shots, and we just gotta be ready to go. We gotta be mentally ready from the start of the game to not let them get that confidence.”
If that’s true, it’s robust to know why the prior Knicks groups didn’t have this drawback. Between the 1999-00 and 2019-20 seasons, they received 32% of their street video games and almost 50% of their dwelling video games. That was roughly the NBA’s common ratio throughout that span.
Still, current proof suggests Barrett and Brunson may very well be on to one thing. Without the followers and their noise, the ambiance and attract of the Garden is misplaced. And when followers had been absent in the course of the pandemic 2020-21 season, the Knicks had been improbable at dwelling at 25-11 — means higher than their 16-20 street mark.
Tom Thibodeau cited the schedule and alluded to metropolitan visitors as a problem. It’s price noting that Barrett has been extra environment friendly at dwelling this season, whereas Brunson and particularly Julius Randle have shot a lot worse.
The causes for a homecourt benefit are sometimes four-fold: Travel is exhausting for the guests; Referees are inclined to favor the house groups; Fans increase their dwelling staff; Players are extra snug on their very own courtroom.
“Sometimes there’s nothing you can do. Sometimes, it’s the way the schedule unfolds,” Thibodeau stated. “You could be at a rest disadvantage. There could be early starts. A lot of things. So you want to control all the things that you can. Now there are some logistical challenges for us as well. If you’re in an L.A., a Chicago, a New York, you’re dealing with different things. Brooklyn — same thing. That’s part of life. Just be ready to play. That’s the big thing.”
The elephant within the room is the apply facility, which is situated subsequent to the Regeneron headquarters in Tarrytown. It’s about 30 miles from Madison Square Garden and an hour commute by automobile, relying on the visitors. The Knicks usually maintain a morning shootaround on the facility earlier than gathering at MSG for a sport a couple of hours later, negating the comfort benefit as a result of lots of the gamers stay in White Plains to be near the power.
There have been occasions the Knicks gamers stayed in a Manhattan resort the night time earlier than a house sport, fairly than sleep at dwelling.
Regardless of the rationale, the Knicks must play half their video games at MSG and so they have to be higher.
“We’re in games, we just have to close better at home,” Brunson stated.
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Source: www.bostonherald.com