Diehard Knicks fanatics were unfazed by their team’s Game 3 loss against the Spurs Monday night and are confident the orange and blue will clinch the NBA Finals.
The San Antonio Spurs won by just four points in the heated matchup at Madison Square Garden, shattering the Knicks’ historic 13-game winning streak.
But New York fans are optimistic, holding out hope for a “Knicks in six” run.
“I’ve been a fan all my life. Knicks in six. We are going to bring it back home with the final paycheck at the Garden,” John Murray, 50, told The Post outside MSG.
“I’m confident and I’m sure the Knicks are going to win the championship,” said Binicius Santos, 29, of Brazil, who watched the game at a nearby bar.
“I think in five but I’m hoping six because New York deserves to celebrate the championship in the Garden.”
Another said a loss in the finals was just realistic.
“We gotta win the next one. The Spurs are a good team, so you gotta expect they’ll win one game,” Greg Armstrong, a 62-year-old New Yorker, said. “I’m not worried. This team has been resilient.”
A pair of friends from Harlem said they don’t mind the loss so much since now they’ll have more games to watch.
“It’s another game,” said Lorenz Gray, a 31-year-old building manager. “Rome wasn’t built in a day.”
“We love basketball,” his pal Avery Banks, 32, added. “We don’t mind another game.”
But one disappointed spectator plainly stated, “F–k this. That is my reaction” and pivoted to a “Knicks in six” chant.
Some more gumptious fans were chanting “Knicks in five!” outside the Garden after the Spurs’ win.
Several of the fans had attended watch parties, which popped up in practically every corner of the five boroughs – including official city-approved viewing events inside Central Park, Bryant Park and Brooklyn Bowl.
The sites were a substitute after the city shot down a proposed bash outside the Garden over security concerns while President Trump attended Game 3. Law enforcement established a five-block security perimeter around the arena ahead of the president’s attendance.
Anil Datwani, a 48-year-old man from New Jersey, has been confident the Knicks would emerge victorious, but was “worried about the bad luck from Donald Trump.”
“We gotta channel that out,” Datwani told The Post ahead of the game.
David Chough, a 32-year-old Manhattanite, was one of the few people who didn’t particularly care about the president’s attendance.
“All that matters is the success of the team. They’re blocking out all distractions. All that matters is we try to get the W tonight,” he said.
Not everyone was focused on the game, though.
Rowdy fans outside the Bryant Park watch party created chaos, vaulting onto parked cars, taking down street signs and hurling bottles at officers who responded in riot gear.
One daredevil set fire to a Spurs t-shirt, while a mob chased a Spurs fan across the street.
Police had to deploy pepper spray to quell the crowd. At least six people were arrested for disorderly conduct and one for assaulting a police officer.
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