INDIANAPOLIS — Cheerio, Carmelo.
The NBA gave Carmelo Anthony the boot last night, suspending him for one game for confronting Kevin Garnett twice after Monday’s loss to the Celtics. The suspension will be served tonight vs. Donnie Walsh’s Pacers at the Bankers Life Fieldhouse.
Even to the end, before boarding a flight to Indianapolis yesterday, Anthony did not think he’d get suspended and said he was “not concerned.’’
How wrong he was.
NBA disciplinarian Stu Jackson nailed Anthony, who will miss his seventh game and will be docked 1/110th of his $19.5 million salary — $176,000. According to a source, Anthony’s reps are contemplating asking the players association about filing an appeal to recoup the lost wages, but nothing has been decided.
The Post reported yesterday Garnett made on-court comments about Anthony’s wife, LaLa Vasquez, that made Anthony snap. An Anthony confidant said the Knicks’ star had “a very, very good reason’’ to go after Garnett.
Since late Monday night, Twitter has been abuzz with a report from Black Sports Online that suggested Garnett said to Anthony his wife “tastes like Honey Nut Cheerios.’’
Anthony flew to Indianapolis with the club because the Knicks didn’t find out about the suspension until after they landed last night. He is not permitted inside the arena tonight.
Throughout the fourth quarter of the Knicks’ 102-96 loss, Anthony jabbered at Garnett and they needed to be separated on two occasions. But it was his postgame actions that got him the heave-ho from tonight’s game. Anthony challenged Garnett in the tunnel near the Celtics’ locker room moments after the final buzzer and again confronted him in the parking garage by the Celtics’ team bus.
“There are no circumstances in which it is acceptable for a player to confront an opponent after a game,” Jackson said. “Carmelo Anthony attempted to engage with Kevin Garnett multiple times after Monday’s game and therefore a suspension was warranted.”
Anthony would not answer any specifics yesterday about what Garnett actually said.
“That’s over with,’’ Anthony said. “I don’t want to go back to that. As far as the game goes, I didn’t shoot the ball well. I didn’t play that well. We have nights like that.
“As far as what happened with me and Kevin, that’s settled, done and over with. I don’t want to keep talking about the same thing and beating a dead horse, no disrespect.’’
Garnett abruptly walked out from his postgame interview last night in Boston when he was asked about Anthony.
Anthony may have been done in by a second video that appeared on TMZ yesterday. In it, he and Garnett are seen screaming at each other near the Celtics’ bus. Anthony attempts to get at Garnett but is restrained by several security officers and team officials. The first video that surfaced Monday night showed Anthony waiting quietly by the bus, surrounding by security, police and team officials. His alibi was he just wanted to have a chat with Garnett.
Asked about Garnett’s history of verbal warfare, Knicks coach Mike Woodson said he would like to see the trash talking in the league stop.
“They got to police that side of it,’’ Woodson said, referring to the Celtics. “I got to police my side of it in terms of our players’ reactions. We want to see clean basketball and the trash talking we need to put aside and play basketball.’’
Anthony would have been a hero had he stuck in shots late in the fourth quarter while going at Garnett verbally. But instead he clanged one after another — finishing 6-of-26 — and appeared rattled.
However, the Knicks privately believe Anthony did the right thing, even if it cost them a game, by sticking up for himself against the historically crude Garnett, who apologized in a phone call Tuesday. The Knicks and Celtics meet again Jan. 24 in Boston.
“As long as it doesn’t get personal, then everything’s OK,” Amar’e Stoudemire said. “When it becomes a personal matter, then that’s when things become extra heated. No one wants those problems. No one wants the trash talk to continue on after the game of basketball. If things become personal, then it begins to become more than just trash talk.”
Anthony shot poorly the entire night against the Celtics, but his 2-of-10 fourth quarter cost the Knicks the victory.
“It was one of them nights,’’ he said. “Got out of rhythm with foul trouble. It’s one of them bad-shooting nights.’’
Woodson said it doesn’t tarnish Anthony’s MVP-caliber campaign.
“You’re singling out one incident,’’ Woodson said. “Melo’s been great all year. He had a bad game the other night. He’s capable of having bad games once in a while. The shots he was taking are the shots he made in Orlando when he scored 40. You miss shots sometimes even when you’re a damn good player. He’ll bounce back in Indiana.’’
No he won’t.
marc.berman@nypost.com