NEW YORK — Fairly early in the third quarter, a chant of “We want Kyrie” began modestly in an upper corner of Madison Square Garden diagonally from the Knicks’ bench. The verbal wish was just beginning to spread when it was interrupted by events on the floor below. Their local heroes — or what was left of them after the big Kristaps Porzingis trade — were down by 11 points, and it was time to dream of free agents to be.

There were a few more attempts to get the call going, but nothing materialized. That’s kind of the way things went for the Knicks, as well. The Celtics didn’t play their best, but they were easily able to get out of here with a 113-99 victory.

Irving led them with 23 points (and 10 rebounds and six assists), Marcus Morris added 18 points, and Gordon Hayward had a nice 14 off the bench as the C’s won their eighth in their last nine.

By the end, when some Knick fans had hit the exits, a “Let’s go Celtics” chant broke out and was greeted by some hoots. But by then the Shamrocks had gotten what they came for on a day with off-court drama about Irving’s future.

“It’s nothing but a distraction at this point,” Irving said later after giving his father, Drederick, his game jersey and a hug. “Like I said, I’m appreciative of the fan support I get in any arena but of course coming back home (and) obviously what’s going on in terms of that noise and commentary is just a bunch of nonsense right now. You know, you can’t do anything about it. So I’m just accepting, I’m appreciative, but at that same time I got a game to focus on.”

He added, “What has been said, what has been circling around in terms of extra commentary, I kind of figured it was going to be like that tonight. I’m just happy we got the win and I’m ready to go back to Boston.”

Asked later if he expects the speculation about his free agent decision will quiet down or last until July 1, Irving said, “I think you know the answer to that, man. Obviously you would hope it would quiet down, but, like I said, it doesn’t help when across the league it’s just outside noise again, and my name gets thrown into it. And then conversations, speculations, everybody’s worried about their credibility. I don’t know how this media empire works. I know it’s a bunch of nonsense to me. So I have a focus in winning a championship this year, and that’s where my focus is going to stay.

“Even me saying something like that is not concrete enough for anybody, so it is what it is. I’ve got to go home and take care of my family and friends, and that’s the stuff where it really matters for me. Loving the game of basketball, that’s where it’s always going to be. I didn’t do this for the media, I didn’t do this for the money, I didn’t do this for the fans, I did it because I love the game, and I work extremely hard at my craft and I want to be one of the greatest ever. So that’s where my focus is. It’s going to come. I’m grateful for everybody identifying how talented I am, who wants to play with me, I’m appreciative of that. But at the end of the day, like I said this morning, I’m going to make the best decision for me and my family, and that’s how it’s going to go.”

Irving’s teammates seem to be taking it all as well as could be expected.

“It’s a business,” Morris said. “We all understand that. Obviously we got a lot of young guys that kind of look it up, but it’s a business, man. You say some things, and he’s a guy that’s very polarizing in the NBA, in the world, so everything he says is going to be … even if it’s not really that serious, it’s going to be taken out of proportion. But like I said, man, he still comes in, he’s a professional, we all love him, and we all want him here.”

Added Marcus Smart, “We’re professionals, so we move on and we focus on the task at hand, and that was tonight against the Knicks. We’ve got another one on Sunday, and that’s all we can focus on. We can’t focus on the things we can’t control.”

The Celtics did a reasonable job with that Friday night.

Their injuries aside, the trade left the Knicks without two players who started in their Wednesday loss to the Mavericks, Tim Hardaway Jr. and Trey Burke. But the night certainly didn’t begin well for the Celts. Three and a half minutes after the opening tip, they found themselves nine points in arrears. They made just two of their first nine shots and seemed to be playing down to the level of their undermanned foe.

Then Al Horford hit a 21-footer to set the C’s on a run that would see them score on six straight possessions and grow to 13-2. Two of the Boston buckets came after offensive rebounds, on the way to their 7-0 edge in second-chance points for the frame.

Key in the quarter were the 10 points the Celts got from six New York turnovers while committing none themselves. That was probably to be expected from the Knick remainders, who ended up giving the ball up 18 times for 28 Celtic points for the night, while the Bostonians were conscientious with just seven turnovers (for five New York points). Related Articles Hayward recovers well from his 30-minute return

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The C’s led, 56-47, at the half and 80-73 after three quarters. Then their Pine People made a move. Terry Rozier hit a 3-pointer, and Jaylen Brown stuck a turnaround. The Knicks got the spread back to nine, but Brown drove for a hoop, Rozier made one trey and Marcus Morris had two on consecutive trips up the floor. When Brown went inside for a three-point play, then stole a Kadeem Allen pass and rolled in for a dunk, the Celts were ahead by 21, 104-83, with 5:55 left and any doubt that probably shouldn’t have been there in the first place was removed.

“We had runs throughout the game,” coach Brad Stevens said. “I didn’t think we were all too sharp on either end, as far as the way we evaluate us in a 48-minute game, but obviously we made enough runs to kind of keep them at bay, and then made some plays so it never got closer than 10. But onward and get ready for Sunday (against OKC) at home. Again, I didn’t think we were all that crisp throughout the game tonight, but we were fortunate enough to get a win. Obviously they were very shorthanded.”