ATLANTA — Knicks fans are known to shower their players with love, but the booming chants hit a bit differently for Jose Alvarado.
Alvarado was born in Brooklyn, played high-school basketball at Christ the King in Queens and, less than three months ago, returned home when the Knicks acquired him in a pre-deadline trade with the New Orleans Pelicans.
So when a sellout crowd at Madison Square Garden began singing “Jose, Jose, Jose” in unison as the point guard subbed out in the third quarter of the Knicks’ 126-97 win over the Atlanta Hawks in Game 5, Alvarado let it sink in.
“I’m one of them,” Alvarado said after that playoff victory on Tuesday night. “It feels good. It feels [like] home.”
That homecoming hasn’t exactly been a straight line for Alvarado, whose playing time has ebbed and flowed since his arrival in early February.
He was even a healthy scratch in Game 1 of the first-round series against the Hawks.
But Alvarado has made the most of opportunities since, including scoring an efficient 12 points in 12 minutes off the bench in Game 5.
“It’s just part of the business,” Alvarado, 28, said. “Stay ready. Whatever the team needs. We’re a really good team, so they communicated how it was gonna go. Just, ‘Stay ready,’ and that’s what I did.”
Alvarado is only 6-foot, but the five-year NBA veteran finds ways to overcome his undersized stature with energy, edginess and IQ. A propensity for steals — particularly when he sneaks up behind an unwitting defender — earned him the nickname “Grand Theft Alvarado.”
To add Alvarado, the Knicks sent New Orleans two second-round picks and Dalen Terry, whom they had just acquired from the Chicago Bulls for forward Guerschon Yabusele.
Alvarado immediately flashed as a fill-in for fellow backup guard Miles “Deuce” McBride, who underwent hernia surgery in February. Alvarado endeared himself to Knicks fans with his toughness, as well as with a Feb. 11 eruption in which he scored 26 points and made eight 3-pointers in a win in Philadelphia.
“You give [Knicks president] Leon Rose and his group a lot of credit for trying to bring in guys that might be able to help us,” head coach Mike Brown said before Game 5. The telltale sign is not just who can help in the regular season, but who can help in the playoffs. Obviously, Jose’s been good in the little bit of time we’ve thrown him out there.”
But when McBride returned in late March, minutes became sparser for Alvarado — a trend that continued into the playoffs.
Alvarado’s playing time against the Hawks came at the expense of the slumping Landry Shamet, who played 18 minutes in Game 1 and 10 in Game 2 before falling out of the primary rotation.
“I’ve said this before: Everybody has to be ready to play because anybody’s number can be called at any time,” Brown said earlier in the series.
“And similar to Jordan Clarkson, during the course of the year, Jose wasn’t playing at the end of the year. He didn’t play the first game of the playoffs, but he stayed present. And when his number was called, he performed.”
In Games 2 through 5, the Knicks outscored the Hawks during Alvarado’s minutes each time. He contributed two 3-pointers and three steals in 14 minutes in Game 4; and then shot 4-of-7, including 2-of-3 on 3-pointers, with two rebounds, an assist and a block in Game 5.
Certainly, Knicks fans have taken notice.
“It’s amazing,” Alvarado said of his Game 5 ovation. “I can’t really put it into words. I always had a Knicks jersey on. I always think, ‘This is crazy.’ But it’s a good feeling. I’m excited to be in the city I’m from and compete for a championship.”
