There's expensive, and then there's Madison Square Garden on a big night expensive. As of October 15, the get-in price for 76ers at Knicks on October 20 sits at $1,096. For context, that's roughly 21 times the league-wide median get-in price of $51 across the 580 NBA games we're currently tracking on the NBA price index. This isn't a typo. This is just what it costs to watch basketball at the Garden right now.

And it's not even the priciest this ticket has been. We've been tracking this matchup since August 12, and the high-water mark was $1,885 — the opening price we recorded that first day. The 30-day median has settled at $1,154, with a recent low of $988 on September 24. Over the last seven days, the price has actually dipped $58, down about 5%. Small move, but a move in the right direction if you're watching and waiting.

Why Knicks tickets live in their own universe

Our NBA price table makes the gap impossible to miss. The Knicks sit atop the league with a median price of $236 — more than double the next team on the list, the Lakers at $103. Meanwhile teams like the Rockets ($21.85), Jazz ($18), and Pelicans ($16.50) are putting fans courtside-adjacent for the price of a nice dinner. It's a reminder that "NBA tickets" isn't one market — it's dozens of very different ones, and New York's is its own animal entirely.

The 76ers side of this matchup adds its own gravity, with Philly's own median sitting at $90 — itself the league's third-highest. Put two pricier-than-average teams in the same building, add the Garden's mystique, and you get a ticket that behaves less like a regular-season game and more like an event.

So is it worth waiting?

Here's where the data gets genuinely useful. Across 239 sports events we analyzed for our best-time-to-buy research, prices fell a median of 21% between the 30-day mark and show day. Zoom into just the final two weeks and the pattern holds: sports tickets dropped a median of 14%, and 66% of the events we tracked actually got cheaper as the date approached. That 5% dip we're already seeing on this Knicks game in the last week fits the pattern — it's early, but it's trending the direction history suggests it should.

None of that guarantees a four-figure ticket turns into a bargain by Tuesday. Demand for Garden basketball doesn't cool off the way a midweek game in a smaller market might. But the trend line is real, and it's one more reason to keep an eye on the listing rather than panic-buy off the opening price.

If four figures isn't your October budget, there's still plenty happening elsewhere. New York alone has 332 live events on the board right now if you widen the search beyond one arena, and the city page is the easiest way to scroll through what else is on. For this particular night, though, keep watching the number — and keep this page bookmarked before tip-off.