NEW YORK _ The Knicks knew that this season, with the promise of a patient rebuild, would have its growing pains. But amid the hoopla of opening night, they didn't want it to be right from the opening tip.
The enthusiasm of first-year coach David Fizdale and the confidence of the young team was tested as the Knicks slumped to the bench just three minutes and 57 seconds into the season, trailing the Atlanta Hawks by eight points, having missed their first nine field-goal attempts. And when a fan took the floor during the timeout and banked in a half court shot to win $10,000 it just seemed like salt in the wound.
But if there are going to be ups and downs this season, that down was followed by an up that for a night provided a hint of what could someday be. The Knicks piled on a franchise-record 49 second-quarter points, building leads of as many as 28 points as they coasted to a 126-107 win at Madison Square Garden.
Frank Ntilikina converted the Knicks' first shot from the floor _ right after the fan hit from half court _ with a three-pointer to start a 12-0 run that turned the game around. From there, Tim Hardaway Jr. took over. After missing his first four attempts from the field, Hardaway drained eight consecutive shots and by halftime he'd piled up 22 points on 8-of-14 shooting. After converting the eight, he missed six straight, but still posted a game-high 31 points. Kevin Knox struggled through a 4-for-16 shooting performance and Mitchell Robinson played just one minute before tweaking his ankle, but undrafted rookie Allonzo Trier poured in 15 points. Ups and downs.
"The whole time I've said the last 12 to 14 years success was determined on how far you went," Fizdale said. "I don't think that's a fair gauge for this team. And I don't know if I have the gauge because I don't want to put a cap on them. This team may catch fire and figure some things out and may be a surprise or this team may go through some rollercoasters.
"All I want to see at the end of the day, are we getting better every day at what we talk about, at what we work at? Is our culture getting stronger every day? Are people buying in and really committing to what we're trying to do? Are players getting better? At the end of the year, hopefully we can say our player development and how we grew these guys and the way we committed to the competition and committed to each other, we can look back and say we didn't cheat that."
While this may be a season with its struggles, the fans were more than happy to play along as Hardaway Jr. implored them to cheer and Trier threw down a resounding dunk that brought back echoes of fellow-undrafted free agent John Starks.
Fizdale wanted to make this game out to be like any other one, an opponent on the schedule with a goal of competing and winning. But this game, opening night of his tenure at Knicks head coach, could not just be another night.
His older brother, Robert Walker, who had given him his first pair of basketball sneakers when he dreamed of playing the game, was on hand to see Fizdale step onto the floor as the 29th coach of the franchise.
"The more people said it to me I think that's when it got to me," Fizdale said before the game. "I went into work like a normal day ... and we came in and did our normal prep and everything but obviously probably first 10 seconds walking out there it hit me that I'm head coach of the Knicks at the Garden and my older brother is here and that's a big deal for me.
"He's the one who bought me my first pair of hoop shoes. The thing that made me want to be a basketball player is my brother saying, hey you some of these to do that. And I told him that. Remember why you got into this. Lose all of the glamour and stuff like that. One day in your life somebody triggered it in you and my brother was that guy so that's the part I think is really special for me."
The nice thing about day one in this role is that the introduction brings only cheers. That may not be the case as the losses mount on what is expected to be a tough season for the Knicks, a developmental project tasked to Fizdale. And despite the talk of patience, it might not last the night if the Knicks couldn't beat the Hawks, another rebuilding project.
The Knicks, even while building a lead, looked as sloppy as you might expect from a team that had three rookies and a 20-year-old on the court at one time. But they also provided what Fizdale hoped for _ defensive effort and constant attacking offensively.
"I've wrapped my mind around whatever comes to stay even through it and be something that the guys can rely on from the standpoint of experience I've seen and things that I've been through," Fizdale said. "While they're going through what they have to go through to grow I can just be a stable person for them no matter what's going on."
