There was another exchange between the Knicks and Celtics that inflamed tensions between players last night. Once again, Carmelo Anthony was a target. And once again, perhaps Anthony’s wife, too.
After last night’s 92-86 Knicks loss in Game 5 at the Garden, Raymond Felton and Boston guard Jordan Crawford were yelling at each other, with Celtics forward D.J. White appearing to be in the mix, too. On video, Crawford is shown appearing to make a vulgar crack about Anthony’s wife, La La Vasquez.
When the two teams played on Jan. 7 at the Garden, Anthony and Kevin Garnett were involved in a verbal exchange that prompted Anthony to wait for Garnett outside the Celtics’ postgame bus. During the game, Garnett had allegedly compared Anthony’s wife to a breakfast cereal.
“I’m not thinking about Jordan Crawford. Not at this point in time. I’ll tell you that,” Anthony said. “I don’t think he deserves for you to be typing [about him].”
The 24-year-old Crawford is a backup shooting guard acquired in midseason from Washington. Crawford did not play in Game 5 after playing just seven minutes in Game 4.
Regarding last night’s incident, Crawford said, “Ask somebody who was there.”
No punches were thrown, so it doesn’t appear to be an altercation that will prompt discipline. However, it would make sense for the NBA to issue warnings to both teams prior to tomorrow’s Game 6 in Boston. There are clearly emotions at play involving the Celtics and Anthony. Not to mention that J.R. Smith was suspended for Game 4 because of an elbow he threw at Jason Terry in Game 3.
Asked about last night’s altercation, Smith replied, “Acting like a bunch of schoolgirls.”
“Just some words,” Felton said. “Nothing serious.”
“I didn’t see it. I wasn’t happy with it,” Celtics coach Doc Rivers said. “We don’t need any of that. … Let’s just play basketball. Let’s play really physical basketball and let’s walk off the floor. I don’t know what happened.”
Rivers then cracked, “Glad [John] Starks wasn’t there.”
— Additional reporting by Fred Kerber