Sold-out Garden watches Knicks rout Heat in the wake of Sandy

• Knicks open season with win over Heat amid damage in New York area
• LeBron: 'Getting everything back running' more important than game
• Many fans split on whether game should be played

NEW YORK – New York Knicks fans showed up to watch their team. The Knicks showed up for their fans.

The reciprocation was mutually appreciated – the Knicks didn't know how they felt about playing the game, with so many still suffering from effects of Hurricane Sandy.

"Before the game, it was difficult," Knicks center Tyson Chandler said. "Everyone had the hurricane on their mind and everything this city is going through. As we were going out, we said, 'Look, we're here. Our friends are here. The thing we can do it put a smile on their face by going out there, playing hard and representing the city in the right way."

Smiles indeed. If not all fans in an announced sellout of 19,033 attended the game, it was close, and they were treated to a Knicks victory – 104-84 victory over the defending champion Miami Heat at rocking Madison Square Garden.

Half of Heat forward LeBron James wanted to play at Madison Square Garden Friday – as brief respite from the devastation. All of Dwyane Wade preferred not to play the game, and he expressed in Tweets and verbally, telling USA TODAY he planned to donate his salary from Friday's game to storm relief efforts.

The Heat played like they didn't want to be there, and the inspired Knicks took advantage of the flat Heat, clobbering them with a barrage of three-pointers. The Knicks made 19-of-36 threes, including 4-of-8 from All-Star forward Carmelo Anthony (30 points, 10 rebounds) and 5-of-8 from reserve forward Steve Novak (17 points).

A 10-second sequence in the fourth quarter captures the essence of the game. Knicks guard Raymond Felton made a three with 6:40 left in the game, and on Miami's next possession, forward Chris Bosh shot a three-point airball with 6:30 left.

Late in the game, Knicks fans chanted "Rasheed Wallace ... Rasheed Wallace," and Knicks coach Mike Woodson obliged, sending the 38-year-old forward into the game.

"Our fans were fantastic," Woodson said. "They're like our sixth man, and it's beautiful to watch. ... It's great. It says a lot about our city, and the fans that support us."

And Wallace? He promptly made a three-pointer and later delivered the quote of the night: "I accept my Brian Scalabrine role. I'm cool with it."

Responding to mounting pressure and criticism, officials canceled on Friday the New York City Marathon scheduled for Sunday – just hours after insisting the race would take place.

The concern about whether the Heat-Knicks game should be played disappeared as fans began entering Madison Square Garden.

It was the right move to postpone Thursday's scheduled Knicks-Brooklyn Nets game. With no subway trains traveling to Brooklyn, a jam-packed crossing at the Brooklyn Bridge, limited bus service and sparse parking at the Nets' new $1 billion Barclays Center, it make playing a game there Thursday impractical and near impossible.

Even though much of lower Manhattan was still without power for most of the day Friday, subway trains dropped riders off close enough to Madison Square Garden and Penn Station, and the Long Island Rail Road rolled into Penn Station.

Thousands of New Yorkers were without power, and store shelves have been depleted of basic staples. A handful of traffic signals near busy Madison Square Garden were out, and other traffic lights flickered. Driving into Manhattan revealed large stretches of lower Manhattan and lower mid-town in the dark.

Coffee shops and diners were packed with customers Friday morning, many people in long lines waiting to order food and beverages and to use restrooms. Some restaurants had signs on the front door that read "Closed, no food." Several blocks south of Bryant Park at West 40th Street and East of 5th Avenue were without power while businesses across the street had power.

Some fans, who had been without power for days, used outlets inside Madison Square Garden to charge their phones.

As the day progressed, Con Edison continued to restore power to thousands of customers. Around 5 p.m. ET Friday, the company Tweeted, "#ConEdison restores over 65,000 customers on the Lower East Side and East Village areas of #Manhattan #Sandy"

The company continued to Tweet through the evening, saying it had restored power to more than 450,000 customers in Manhattan, Queens, Bronx, Staten Island, Brooklyn and Westchester County.

Then, it was time for basketball. Before the game, Anthony addressed the crowd. "Thank you for coming out in hard times and supporting the New York Knicks. This is the most important time for the city of New York to come together and rebuild the city."

Then, they destroyed the Heat.

"Over the last couple of days, we didn't know if the game was going to be played," Anthony said. "Then, before the game we saw that they cancelled the marathon. We had to go out there and play. Today was something to give New Yorkers a couple hours of peace. … We gave them a good show tonight. That's the least that we could do."

Prior to the game, some shared James' 50-50 sentiment. It held true on Manhattan sidewalks in front of Penn Station and Madison Square Garden, where the almost-normal rush of car and foot traffic passed. Outside the Garden, hundreds of Knicks fans breezed through a line for free Knicks T-shirts.

Tyon Reid, 32, took the 6 train downtown from the Bronx. He left early just in case he encountered transportation issues. He didn't.

Asked if the game should have been played, he said, "Yes and no. Yes, because I'm excited for the start of the season. No, because I'm not sure everyone will make it because of the transportation is messed up. Plus, people are not really thinking about the Knicks because of what happened with the hurricane."

He also had tickets to Thursday's postponed Knicks-Nets game in Brooklyn's new Barclays Center. "I was like good. I could have never made it to Brooklyn. I'm not upset at all."

Anthony Donahue, a Knicks fan who hosts a weekly radio show on the Knicks, would have been fine either way, too.

"You eventually have to play," said the 28-year-old resident of the Bronx who also rode the subway. "If you go back to 9/11, the (New York) Mets played six days later. It's devastating around the city, but eventually you do move on. I actually expect a pretty good crowd at the game tonight. I'm going to guess of the 19,763 seats, that they'll get 17,000 in there.

"I haven't missed an opening night since I've been 14."

Robert Boyd, who lives in the Jamaica neighborhood in Queens, took the Long Island Rail Road directly to Penn Station. The 62-year-old, wearing his Miami Heat hat, said he encountered no issues getting into Manhattan.

Still, Boyd, like Wade, doesn't believe the game should have been played.

"To be honest, I would have rather them postponed it," he said. "There's a lot of other things that take precedence. The gas and power situations are difficulties facing lots of people."

Nick Bukovec, 26, drove into Manhattan from South Plainfield, N.J. A drive that normally takes 45 minutes to an hour took almost two hours.

"We had to take a lot of detours, but other than that it was fine," he said. "Now that we have power back, I'm can't be too upset and aggravated."