Back when Madison Square Garden regularly hosted playoff games — but even as recently as two years ago — several opposing players willingly have assumed the villain role that comes with facing the Knicks in the postseason.
Whether Donovan Mitchell, Darius Garland or any of his other players become the next Reggie Miller or Trae Young in the eyes and throats of New York fans, Cavaliers coach J.B. Bickerstaff hopes his team embraces the unique experience of playing at MSG beginning Friday night when the first-round series resumes with Game 3 after a 1-1 split in Cleveland.
“You gotta get them to embrace it. It may be loud, but it’s gonna be fun,” Bickerstaff said after the Cavs worked out Thursday at an empty Garden. “If you’re really in it for the competition, like our guys are, it’s just noise, it’s just boos, it’s just words. But it’s fun.
“This is why you do what you do, is to compete in environments like this. Being able to band together with your team versus everybody and having that type of mentality, that’s what a team is all about and that’s what our guys have been about.”
Mitchell, the All-Star guard who grew up in Westchester, didn’t speak to the media after practice ahead of his first road playoff game against his hometown team.
Of course, the Knicks also attempted to acquire Mitchell last summer before he was traded from the Jazz to the Cavaliers.
“Don’t do too much, don’t make the moment too big,” Mitchell said following the Cavs’ Game 2 victory on Tuesday. “You guys [in the media] are gonna do your job. Stephen A. [Smith] is gonna do his job. But just make the moment about what we do.
“It’s gonna be loud. It’s gonna be crazy. It’s gonna be fun. At the end of the day, you want this as a competitor.”
The 26-year-old Mitchell scored a game-high 38 points in the Knicks’ series-opening win, but he sacrificed some offense to get Garland (32 points) and others more involved in Game 2, finishing with 17 points and 13 assists.
“Obviously he wants us to play well because he wants us to win. I don’t think he’s any more mindful of it because it’s home than the situation we’re in right now, which is a seven-game series with the New York Knicks,” Bickerstaff added of Mitchell. “He’s always been about trying to help us win.
“You think about what he did the other night, he really took a step back to facilitate and help other people be successful, because it was the right thing to do to help us win. So I expect him to continue to do that.”
Still, as Garland noted after his star turn in Game 2, “nobody in New York likes us right now.”
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And Bickerstaff doesn’t necessarily think that’s a negative for his team.
“That’s what competitors do. Competitors find a reason and draw energy from it,” Bickerstaff said. “That’s what we’re hopeful that our guys do.
“Whatever motivation it takes, there’s no bigger motivation than where we are right now. But the motivation to quiet a raucous crowd, as a group, that’s how you use it. That’s how you embrace it and go out and perform at your best.”