This really chaps my ass. The Celtics are on a four game skid. After the third loss, Doc Rivers ripped them a new one for playing “erratic, inconsistent and underachieving basketball.” They then lost another one to the now 11-32 Cavaliers. They head into a matchup against easily their biggest rivals in the league this season. They know they won’t be able to use their street ball tactics of trash talking and intimidation (because the “Knarcs” put mics on Melo), but, after the Honey Nut Cheerios incident the last time the Celtics and Knicks faced off, fans have MORE than enough fodder to make up for the silence the players themselves would have to stick to.

So, what does the Garden do? They confiscate Honey Nut Cheerios signs and boxes. How SOFT is that?? The team is reeling, searching for identity, can’t manage any form of consistency, and the Garden decides to be a bunch of moms on neighborhood watch. What’s next? Is distracting opponents as they take free throws going to land us in detention? Are they going to call our parents when we boo?

What makes the Garden the Garden are the fans — their intensity, their creativity, and, yeah, their heckling. Take that away and its just another circular amphitheater with a basketball court in the middle. Home court advantage is meaningless if the fans aren’t allowed to, well, be fans.

Remember when the Garden would turn the visiting team’s locker room into a sauna, allowed their opponents only cold water showers, and there were dead spots on the parquet floor the Celtics would force players into? Remember in ’85-’86 when the Celtics won 40 of 41 home games — the most in NBA history? How about when in game 5 of the ’84 finals the Lakers needed oxygen masks because they couldn’t handle the lack of air conditioning? Yeah, how about we bring THOSE days back, and let fans be fans.