David Fizdale took comfort in the familiar most of the day Wednesday. Coaches are like that. Routines are sacraments to them. He led the Knicks through their shootaround — just another game day, 1 of 82 — and he drove to Madison Square Garden, and he studied film and he thought, a lot, about the Atlanta Hawks.
And yet: he knew.
“The first 10 seconds, it’s going to hit me,” Fizdale said Wednesday, two hours before he would make his debut as the Knicks’ head coach.