Security will be tight and streets will be closed off for several blocks again outside Madison Square Garden on Wednesday, as the Knicks look to extend their 2-1 lead against the San Antonio Spurs in Game 4 of the N.B.A. finals.
Unlike the situation on Monday, when a watch party outside the Garden was canceled because of President Trump’s attendance at Game 3, the city has approved a permit for a ticketed watch party there for 1,000 people on Wednesday, the police said.
But it is not clear whether that party will take place. As of 2 p.m. on Wednesday, the watch party page on the Knicks’ site had registration links for parties at Wollman Rink in Central Park and Brooklyn Bowl in Williamsburg, but not for one outside the Garden. There are no tickets left for either the Wollman Rink or Brooklyn Bowl parties.
Madison Square Garden declined to answer questions on whether the Garden watch party would happen, though it did issue a statement Wednesday afternoon saying that the city’s security cordon “will turn the streets around M.S.G. into a police state.”
Beginning at 4 p.m. Wednesday, the Police Department will create a “frozen zone” from West 29th Street to West 35th Street between Sixth and Eighth Avenues, it said in a news release.
“We know you are excited to cheer on the Knicks tonight, and we are too, but we want everyone to be safe,” the department said in a post on X.
After the police announced the security plan on Tuesday, the Garden had bristled, calling Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Jessica Tisch, the police commissioner “New York City’s biggest party poopers” in a statement.
“The last several victories the Knicks have had have been celebrated by thousands and thousands outside MSG,” the statement said. “The joy and happiness were palpable everywhere. Apparently Mayor Mamdani and Police Commissioner Tisch, despite what they say, don’t want to see these celebrations happen.”
Knicks fans have sometimes become unmanageable at watch parties and on the streets during the finals. On Monday, eight people were arrested at a watch party in Bryant Park, about 10 blocks from the Garden. Two were charged with assaulting an officer.
The Police Department, responding to the Garden’s pushback, said in a statement on Tuesday that Ms. Tisch had made it clear in public remarks on Monday that the perimeter would be back at Game 4 for “safety purposes.”
The secure perimeter outside the arena will close at 4 p.m. to motorists, and to pedestrians unless they have a ticket to the game or the watch party; live in the area; have a ticket for a train leaving Penn Station, which is beneath Madison Square Garden; are going to a business within the area or have credentials. Anyone entering will be screened, the police said.
The four entry points for the secured, screened area are:
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Sixth Avenue at West 33rd Street
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Sixth Avenue at West 32nd Street
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Eighth Avenue at West 33rd Street
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Corner of Eighth Avenue and West 30th Street
There are no bags, backpacks, alcohol or umbrellas allowed, despite the National Weather Service forecast, which calls for evening thunderstorms.
If there is a watch party outside the Garden, partygoers will have to enter through a checkpoint on Sixth Avenue at West 33rd Street. The police said there will be no re-entry.
Maia Coleman contributed reporting.
