Garden party: New York fans invade Cleveland as Knicks try to sweep Cavaliers and make NBA Finals
CLEVELAND -- The Knicks and their fans threatened to turn Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals into a Garden party.
Madison Square Garden, that is.
With New York one win from sweeping the Cleveland Cavaliers and earning its first NBA Finals appearance since 1999, thousands of Knicks fans — and some of their well-heeled celebrity backers — descended upon Rocket Arena on Monday night.
Based on the decibel level and “Let's Go Knicks!” chants during pregame warmups, New York fans seemed to outnumber Clevelanders, who are holding out hope that the Cavs can somehow overcome an 0-3 deficit in the series. That's never happened in the NBA as teams are a collective 164-0 when leading 3-0 in a best-of-seven series.
Among the New York A-list celebrities on hand were actor Timothée Chalamet and his girlfriend, Kylie Jenner, director Spike Lee, comedian Tracy Morgan and rappers along with former Knicks players Walt “Clyde” Frazier and Allan Houston.
The Cavs, who hosted pop music superstar Taylor Swift and her fiance, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce in Game 3, were represented by rapper Machine Gun Kelly. Cleveland also brought back beloved guard Matthew Dellavedova, a member of its 2016 championship team for some karma.
Knicks fans were boisterous during New York's win in Game 3, and Cavs guard Donovan Mitchell lamented that was mostly because Cleveland gave its towel-waving crowd nothing to cheer about.
“I’m from New York, this doesn’t shock me. They do it in every arena,” Mitchell said. “That’s how Knicks fans are. I was one back in the day.”
___
AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba
