New York Knicks forward Og Anunoby, left, tries to spin around Spurs forward Keldon Johnson during the second half of Game 2 of the NBA Finals on Friday in San Antonio. (AP photo)

NEW YORK — Madison Square Garden has seen just about everything in sports and entertainment, from the first Muhammad Ali-Joe Frazier fight to the first Wrestlemania.

It just hasn’t seen much of the NBA Finals.

The New York Knicks have brought the finals back to their home court for the first time since 1999 and can make sure they don’t leave again this year. Fans are spending astonishingly high prices for tickets and the potential to witness a celebration more than five decades in the making.

With a 2-0 lead over Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs, the Knicks are halfway to their first championship since 1973. They are the biggest thing in the Big Apple, and it seems everyone is caught up in the hoopla except the Knicks themselves.

“I know the fan base is really excited, as they should be,” captain Jalen Brunson said. “But as a team, us inside the locker room, we have more work to do.”

Game 3 is tonight, with President Donald Trump in the building. Whether they’ve played in the arena or sat way up in the cheap seats — not that there is such a thing this time with tickets reselling for more than $10,000 — people know this night will be different.

“I think it’s going to be through the roof,” Spurs guard Dylan Harper said. “I think it’s going to be everything that I’ve kind of seen or dreamed of times 10.”

It will be the first NBA Finals game at Madison Square Garden since June 25, 1999, which ended with the Knicks watching the Spurs celebrate their first championship after winning Game 5.

That series, and one in 1994, were the only finals games played at MSG since the Knicks won the 1973 title. They were rarely close again until this 13-game winning streak, the second longest by any team in one playoffs, with the atmosphere around the city seemingly becoming more raucous with each victory.

“Fans have earned the right and deserve the right to see finals basketball be played here at Madison Square Garden,” Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns said. “For this to be the first game in a long time that they have seen finals basketball, it’s up to us to bring it, give them something to cheer for, give them something to get loud for and also give them something to believe in.”

Wembanyama, Brunson and the rest of the players will be only part of the scene Monday, sharing it with the first sitting president to attend an NBA Finals game and the celebrity fans who surround the court. Some of them were already there Sunday for practices, with Knicks coach Mike Brown finally getting to meet actor Ben Stiller, then having his news conference extended when rapper Fat Joe insisted on a chance to speak from the back.

Wembanyama got to show his stuff at MSG in his second season, when the Spurs were given the leadoff game on the NBA’s marquee Christmas schedule and he scored 42 points. Opportunities like that, which the Spurs increasingly have been treated to since drafting the 7-foot-4 phenom from France, could help them with what they will face tonight.

___

AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba