There is the buzzkill element to all of this, sure. Nobody likes it when the neighbors call the cops because the music’s too damned loud, when you have to untap the kegs and send everyone home. The 76ers sent everyone home.
You can live with that part. Life is full of disappointments, and a basketball season is often lousy with them. Besides, Knicks fans had enjoyed one endless party across this endless summer of celebration. It had to end at some point. It ended Tuesday night. The Sixers kicked in the door and turned the music off. They beat the Knicks 106-100.
It happens. It happened. Turn off the lights, Dandy Don. The party’s over.
Then there is the other part, and that one’s a little more troubling deep in your basketball soul. The kindest way to put what the Knicks did Tuesday night into words is this way: They weren’t good. At all. They were flat. They got on a brief roll in the second quarter, but beyond that they looked … is exhausted the word? Exhausted sounds like a weird word on opening night.