The natives — and there were 19,812 of them — were beyond restless, they were raging. There were just under 10 minutes left in the first half, and Justin Hamilton had just dunked the basketball off a feed from Bojan Bogdanovic and suddenly the Nets were up 37-23 on the Knicks.
Suddenly, whatever Election Day hangover might have been infecting a sleepy Madison Square Garden was set aside amid an endless kickline of wide-open layups and wider-open 3-pointers.
Suddenly, whatever Zen they may have been feeling about keeping the Knicks’ slow start in perspective was gone.
And with good reason.