A most promising debut for McGrady

Playing the role of LeBron James last night was Tracy McGrady, who in these final eight weeks of the season will provide a glimpse at how New York treats a superstar.

Never mind the traditional D-Fense chant (the team hardly did much of that anyway against the Thunder). As the organ played the familiar chord, the fans substituted "T-Mac!" A loud cry of "We want T-Mac!" resonated from the 300s all the way down to celebrity row.

"I haven't felt that good in a while, to really be received that way," McGrady said. "It really gave chills down my spine."

McGrady finished with 26 points in 32 minutes, but after scoring 19 in the first half, he was hardly a factor in the second half and overtime.

Mike D'Antoni tried to keep McGrady limited to 30 minutes in his Knicks debut and first NBA game since Dec. 23. The most action McGrady saw in OT was as an inbounder three times in the final minute. He never took a shot.

"I didn't have any legs at all," McGrady said. "I felt like why be out there and hurt my team in a position to win right now . . . It just wasn't the right thing to do. I didn't want to be a hero."

It was the spoiler to what had been a night in which the Garden seemed intoxicated with optimism after the blockbuster trade before Thursday's trade deadline. It's hard to celebrate something as intangible as salary-cap space, so to have McGrady at least gave the people something to cheer - even if the result was pretty much the same as it was before the trade deadline: a sixth straight loss.

"He's a superstar, and that's what superstars do," said Eddie House, who had a strong debut with 24 points off the bench. "They step right in and make it look like they didn't skip a beat."

The Knicks clearly were a different team, which is bound to happen when almost half the roster is dismissed for a new group. David Lee seemed to have no trouble adjusting to the new cast, recording 30 points, 10 rebounds and six assists. Wilson Chandler had 15 points. But Danilo Gallinari still was often invisible within the offense, shooting 3-for-6 from the field, including just one attempt in the first half.

McGrady's first-half performance had vintage moments that caught even him by surprise. "I didn't expect to play the way I did," he said. "I expected to move the way I was moving out there, but as far as being efficient offensively and playing that many minutes? No . . . The key is how I'm going to feel and then Monday. That's the big test."

The issue, of course, will be conditioning. McGrady played only 7.7 minutes per game in a six-game showcase stint with the Rockets in December and has since been working out on his own. Perhaps if this trade had been made in December, when the Rockets sent McGrady into exile, the Knicks could legitimately believe they could contend for a playoff berth.

"It's all about having fun," McGrady said. "Regardless of what our record is right now, you feed off of that crowd and that energy, and it just felt good."

There was a buzz just like this the last time a No. 3 made his Knicks debut after a blockbuster trade. Stephon Marbury arrived in January 2004 as the Brooklyn-born prodigal son, and though that team did go on to make the playoffs, the long-term impact was hardly uplifting.

But when McGrady stepped into the Knicks' locker room, he immediately became the best player in the room. It took him a half to produce more points than the entire career of Darko Milicic (16), who was one of the six players no longer on this roster after Thursday's trade deadline.

"They seem like they're excited to have me," McGrady said of Gallinari and Chandler. Apparently, they're not the only ones.