NEW YORK — Knicks fans are hardly known for their restraint. Fans in the NBA‘s biggest market have been willing to boo everyone from opposing players to their own owner, so naturally, they brought their A-game when a former superstar made his return to Madison Square Garden Thursday night. 

Kristaps Porzingis spent the first three-and-a-half years of his career with the Knicks, but was traded to the Dallas Mavericks last January after telling the team that he no longer wanted to play for them. Knicks fans didn’t take kindly to that, and booed Porzingis mercilessly in his first game back at the Garden. It started during the introductions of the starting lineups. 

The boos didn’t slow down from there. Practically every time Porzingis touched the ball, the New York fans serenaded him with chants of “KP sucks.” Those same chants extended even into timeouts. 

To their credit, the boos seem to be working. Porzingis struggled mightily to open the game. He didn’t make a field goal in the first quarter, finished the first half 4-for-10 from the field. The Mavericks trailed for nearly the entire first half in a game in which they were favored by 7.5 points.

Dallas and New York have already played once this season, a Knicks victory last week. That win equals half of their for the season so far. Another win won’t launch them into the playoff conversation, but it would be an important moral victory for a team desperate for any sign of progress.