NBA

Dolan has to put out The Fire

By MARC BERMAN

It took the 10th game, the fifth home game and 29 turnovers for the Garden faithful to send their message to owner James Dolan to get rid of Isiah Thomas.

Perhaps the fans were just venting at the atrocity on the court, with their endless “Fire Isiah” chants. The Knicks coughed up the ball in every way possible, with key new addition Zach Randolph (seven turnovers) looking like a lost soul against athletic Golden State.

The venom began during pregame introductions. Thomas and Stephon Marbury, back in the starting lineup, were both resoundly booed, with Thomas getting the edge for loudest. And whenever Marbury handled the ball early in the first quarter, he was booed. Randolph, who had played his whole career in Portland, had never seen anything like this hostility, was disturbed by it.

Well, Zach, you’re not in Kansas anymore. This was six years in the making and one of the ugliest nights at the Garden I can remember.

Isiah, smartly, said afterward it was all deserved, that it’s all on him. But he also mentioned that the Warriors aren’t a good matchup for the Knicks. Who is a good matchup, Isiah? The Albany State Great Danes?

If it is not time for Dolan to fire Isiah, it is time to address the fans who pay the league’s highest ticket prices to see this crap. It is time to explain why at 2-8, with a seven-game losing streak, on the heels of a defeat in federal court on sexual harassment, that Isiah is still your guy.

Because there is one thing worse than “Fire Isiah’’ chants.

Empty seats.