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NEW YORK — Emmanuel Mudiay never quite got used to the aura of Madison Square Garden: the spotlighted court, the very familiar faces in the front row, the feeling that every game was just bigger.
“Everything is kind of a show,” Mudiay said. “... All eyes are on you at all times.”
Mudiay played over a season for the Knicks and it never wore off. You can’t expect it not to feel special for Donovan Mitchell in just his third visit back to the place he once cheered at as a kid.
All eyes were on Mitchell on Wednesday as the Elmsford, New York, native (about 25 miles north of MSG), put on a show in Utah’s 112-104 win over the Knicks.
Mitchell finished with 23 points to lead the Jazz as they improved to 39-22 on the season.
In the first quarter, Mitchell sprinted down the edge of the court as Bojan Bogdanovic dribbled the ball up, and the crowd waited in anticipation.
The fans could see what was about to happen, Bogdanovic could see it, Mitchell could see it. The Knicks, however, could not — or at least they were powerless to stop it.
Mitchell rocketed to the rim, catching a Bogdanovic lob and emphatically slamming it home. The play elicited one of the loudest cheers of the night.
“Man, this is always a blessing,” Mitchell said of playing in the Garden. “As a kid, always coming in here watching games, for me to be on the court is pretty special. It’s always fun to come here and play in front of the hometown.”
As Mitchell's star has grown, the city has continued to embrace him. At a park where he once played AAU ball, he can see kids playing wearing his jersey. That surreal feeling has yet to wear off.
“It's just pretty cool to see that, it kind of shows you that life comes full circle.” Mitchell said. “ … I think that is pretty special, coming here and seeing that is a dream come true.”
At this point, for Knicks fans, it’s more fun to cheer for the local kid than the local team anyway. Things got so bad for New York that a “Sell the team!” chant broke out as Utah’s lead grew to 21 in the fourth quarter, and some of those fans were escorted from the arena.
Outside of a strong opening of the second half, where the Knicks cut Utah’s lead to just 3 points, New York didn’t put up much of a fight. The Mitchell alley-oop was a good play but far from the only one of its kind. The Knicks were missing center Mitchell Robinson due to injury; without him, they looked completely and totally lost when it came to protecting the rim.
Once the Knicks cut Utah’s lead to 3 in the third, the Jazz began running high pick and rolls with Rudy Gobert, and New York had no idea how to stop them. The Knicks were so determined not to give Gobert open lobs that Mitchell, Mike Conley, Bogdanovic and anyone else practically walked right in for layups.
“They can do everything,” New York’s Bobby Portis said. “That’s a well-oiled machine right there.”
That was echoed by Knicks forward Julius Randle: “They just executed; they’re a veteran team. … It’s tough. They really move the ball, spread the floor, get into the paint, kick out, swing, swing, swing, attack again, and they get a lot of movement and ball movement.”
Having defenders say that about his club should make Jazz head coach Quin Snyder happy.
“We want that to be who we are,” Snyder said. “We talk about unselfishness, and we talk about obvious unselfishness. Hopefully, when you watch our guys play that’s what they do and that’s nothing out of the ordinary.”
That mode of play leads to some big nights for plenty of players. Bogdanovic finished with 23 points, Gobert had 18 points and 14 rebounds, and Conley added 17 points and six assists.
Mitchell also added eight assists to go along with his 23 points — giving his hometown crowd at least some reason to cheer.
