When the Knicks debuted their remade roster to the home crowd at Madison Square Garden Saturday night, introducing each player from the seven new free-agent acquisitions to the two-way players waiting for an opportunity, one of the largest ovations from the crowd came when Frank Ntilikina was announced.
There would not be another chance to cheer for Ntilikina in the ensuing 48 minutes as the Knicks stumbled through a one-sided loss to the Boston Celtics. Ntilikina’s only opportunity to get off the bench came with 18 seconds left in the second quarter, when he was substituted in for a defensive sequence in place of Marcus Morris.