No Place Like Home For Garden-Bound Knicks

The New York Knicks are about to embark on a vital defense of the Eastern Seaboard.

Oct 25, 2024; New York, New York, USA; General view of Madison Square Garden during opening tipoff between the New York Knicks and the Indiana Pacers during the first quarter at Madison Square Garden. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-Imagn Images / Brad Penner-Imagn Images

The New York Knicks are home for the (lack of) holidays.

There's set to be no place like home for the Knicks, who are set to stage a defense of the Eastern Seaboard: starting with Monday's game against the Orlando Magic (7:30 p.m. ET, MSG), the Knicks will play all but two of their next 14 games under Madison Square Garden's iconic roof. The exceptions won't take the Knicks far from their beds, as they go to Philadelphia and Brooklyn on Jan. 15 and 21, respectively.

“It’s a time for us to be home, get some practice time," Knicks captain Jalen Brunson said, per Steve Popper of Newsday. "[We] get some more time together where we’re watching film and in the comforts of our own home facility with the fans. It’s just scheduling. We’ve got to take advantage of it.”

Dec 5, 2024; New York, New York, USA; New York Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns (32) slaps hands with fans during the second half against the Charlotte Hornets at Madison Square Garden. Mandatory Credit: John Jones-Imagn Images / John Jones-Imagn Images

Though no team in basketball has traveled more than the Knicks, who have played 21 road games so far and are tied with the Indiana Pacers for most in the NBA this season, but New York has conducted itself well on the road. The Knicks are tied with Boston, Cleveland, and Oklahoma City for most road wins in the Association and they went a perfect 7-0 away from The Garden in December, allowing them to maintain a spot in the Eastern Conference's top three behind only the Cavaliers and Celtics.

One can fully admit, though, that the homestand comes at a perfect time' the Knicks are relatively reeling going into the new year, having dropped two in a row for the first time since early November. Falling to the Western Conference-leading Thunder in OKC on Friday was perhaps understandable but the Knicks let up a season-worst 139 less than 24 hours later in a 13-point defeat to mediocre Chicago.

“Overall, we just went through a pretty tough stretch in terms of where we were in the schedule,” head coach Tom Thibodeau said, per Popper. “I think we’re plus-6 to the road, five of the last six on the road. So now we got a chance to go home and obviously there’s a lot of things we got to work on and clean up."

"We get a chance to go home. But it’s a good challenge for us," he continued. "There’s a lot of teams playing well right now that are coming in. So, we got to take it day by day, game by game."

While the confines may be friendly, the schedule itself is anything but. The Knicks (24-12) handled business by fattening up on subpar competition but the next 14 games feature seven visits from teams that currently rank within the top of their respective conferences. The Knicks' recent nine-game winning streak featured just two wins over current automatic playoff teams, as they beat up the shorthanded Magic twice.

New York is also facing several bumps and bruises: top reserve Miles McBride (hamstring) has missed each of the last three games while Brunson (calf) has been a mainstay on recent injury reports, despite missing just one recent game so far. Karl-Anthony Towns was added to Monday's ledger after limping to the locker room in the penultimate minute of Saturday's in Chicago.

Apr 14, 2024; New York, New York, USA; Members of the New York Knicks hype squad launch tee shirts to the fans during a timeout in the third quarter against the Chicago Bulls at Madison Square Garden. Mandatory Credit: Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images / Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images

It's nothing, the Knicks believe, a little home cooking and treatment can't fix.

“Obviously the travel is always tough. When you do that you don’t realize how nice it is and what an advantage it is to sleep in your own bed,” Josh Hart said after the weekend back-to-back, per Stefan Bondy of the New York Post. “Last night I don’t think I went to sleep until 4 a.m. with the travel and the craziness. So it’ll be good. Obviously we’ll be in a familiar place, get to sleep in our bed, see family, do those kinds of things." 

“Really, [we] just rest up. I think that’s the biggest thing. We don’t have to worry about traveling or anything like that.” 

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