CJ McCollum heard it from a hostile MSG crowd after kicking Jalen Brunson in the groin on a jump shot during Game 1.
The hometown fans gave him a warm welcome again for introductions ahead of Game 2, and they let him hear it even more after he got face-to-face with Knicks guard Jose Alvarado following an offensive foul call late in the third quarter.
It was McCollum who got the last laugh, though, completely silencing the Garden as he led the Hawks on a ferocious 14-point comeback to stun New York in a Game 2 victory.
The 32-year-old is now on the shortlist of Hawks stars to play villain in the Big Apple, but he isn’t looking at it that way.
“I ain’t no villain, I’m a nice guy with two kids and a wife,” McCollum said.
“That’s why we play the game — it’s fun being in opposing areas and when the buzzer sounds it’s quiet and you walk off the court, I think there’s a level of mutual respect. It was a tough game against a good team on their own floor and they’re supposed to be passionate and they do a good job of showing up all year.”
It wasn’t just the fourth that McCollum dominated, as the Knicks simply had no answer for him all night.
After Brunson got the best of him in Game 1, the veteran playmaker was able to outdo him this time around, leading all scorers with 32 points on 12-of-22 shooting from the field.
“You gotta give CJ credit, he hit some tough shots” Mike Brown said. “We have to do a better job defensively on them — they put CJ and [Nickeil] Alexander-Walker in pick-and-roll and played ISO’d, they hit their shots and we missed ours.”
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