It was as earsplitting as the Garden has been in years — let alone this pandemic season that’s been mostly empty until Sunday night.
But in a thriller, Hawks point guard Trae Young was louder and quieted the roar as Atlanta escaped with a 107-105 victory on a night Julius Randle was quiet — not his star self.
Young hit the game-winner with 0.9 seconds left as he deked out defensive specialist Frank Ntilikina, drove past him and hit his patented floater over Randle to break the tie and quiet 15,000 frenzied fans.
A desperation shot by Randle was an airball at the buzzer.
Derrick Rose had tied it on a runner moments before Young won it. Spectacular down the stretch, Young finished with 32 points, 10 assists and was 9 of 9 from the line.
Randle was 6 of 24 for 15 points in a troubling outing.
“I might’ve done too much in trying to prepare,’’ Randle said after his first playoff game. “I got to tailor back a little bit. Everything out there I’ll be able to adjust to and come back ready for the next one. Listen, I’m not making any excuses. I got to be better.”
Thirty five minutes before tipoff, you knew this was going to be one of the loudest nights for the ages with deafening chants of “Let’s Go Knicks’’ ringing out in pre-pandemic decibel-levels.
Though their star Randle was quiet and the Knicks jittery early, they responded to take the lead in the fourth quarter with Alec Burks the standout with 27 points.
But the Knicks failed to win in their first playoff game since 2013.
Burks caught fire down the stretch — playing some at point guard — but missed a big jumper with 30 seconds left.
RJ Barrett ignited the crowd to its highest pitch after he took a pass from Rose and flew in for a high-flying lefty slam over Bogdan Bogdanovic, who redeemed himself with a late 3-pointer.
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