Excited Garden Sees Knicks Lose to Thunder in McGrady, House and Rodriguez’s Debuts

Electric.

That is how you can describe Madison Square Garden Saturday night. During warmups the crowd gave newly acquired guard Tracy McGrady a nice welcoming when he gave thumbs up to the camera. He was cheered enthusiastically when he touched the ball for the first time. By the fourth quarter they were cheering for him to be put back into the game. 

McGrady scored 26 points in his Knicks debut and Eddie House had a season high 24 points in his. McGrady scored 19 of his 26 in the first half. The Knicks lost to the Thunder 121-118 in overtime but despite the loss, McGrady and House’s debuts were sensational. 

The Garden was filled to capacity and there was excitement throughout the arena. I was impressed with the number of McGrady jerseys and t-shirts that people were wearing. For a guy that is only under contract for 29 games, at least for now, for people to go out and buy his jersey is incredible. You don’t see a lot of jersey-wearing in the first place, but the jerseys I did see were either McGrady and David Lee’s.

Eddie House was a welcoming surprise in his debut. He looked like a sharp-shooter as he shot 8-14 from the field and 4-8 from three-point range for a total of 24 points. He’s the type of shooter D’Antoni loves. Surrounding star players with shooters like House and Gallinari will be a formula for success for the Knicks.

The Knicks lost but it’s not about wins and losses anymore this season. They are too far gone. If they would have acquired McGrady, House and Rodriguez 20-30 games ago, then they would have had a legitimate shot at a run for the 8th playoff spot in the East. It’s too late now with 28 games to play.

Let’s see how McGrady does on Monday. Hopefully he’ll have another very good game and he’ll keep the Garden excited, even with the Knicks having only 19 wins.