Hawks’ C.J. McCollum emerges as newest Knicks villain after Game 2 spat, fourth-quarter heroics

New York City has a new sports villain.

Atlanta Hawks star C.J. McCollum heard it from a sellout crowd at Madison Square Garden after a tense exchange with Jose Alvarado – the second game in a row that the veteran guard rankled Knicks fans.

McCollum then made three big baskets in the game’s final 2:08 – including a go-ahead jumper that proved to be the game-winner.

Late in the third quarter of the Knicks’ 107-106 loss in Game 2 of their first-round playoff series, Hawks center Tony Bradley was called for an offensive foul as he set a hard screen on Alvarado.

McCollum, whom Bradley was trying to screen open, then got into it with Alvarado, going face-to-face with the scrappy Knicks guard in a moment that underscored the growing chippiness in this series.

Alvarado and McCollum were assessed double technicals, so neither shot free throws, but the damage was done.

The crowd united in a profanity-laced chant at McCollum’s expense – using the same explicit verbiage they used to direct at former Hawks star Trae Young.

The animosity continued for the remainder of the game, but McCollum got the last laugh.

His baseline jumper with 33.5 seconds left put the Hawks up, 105-103 – a lead they would not relinquish as they tied the series at one game apiece.

McCollum had already earned the ire of Knicks fans in Game 1 when he kicked Jalen Brunson in the groin as he followed through on a jump shot, leaving Brunson writhing in pain. McCollum was given a technical foul for that incident, too.

Brunson later brushed off the collision as inadvertent, but McCollum delivered another low blow by accusing the Knicks star of flopping.

“I shot a jumper, and Jalen thought we were at a Broadway show,” McCollum said after the Knicks’ Game 1 win. “He acted it out until they reviewed it.”

McCollum was therefore on thin ice among Knicks fans entering Game 2, as the boos that accompanied his name during the pregame introductions were by far the loudest.

But they were nothing compared to what McCollum heard after his spat with the fan-favorite Alvarado.

It is perhaps poetic that the Hawks acquired McCollum, 34, in the January trade that sent Young to the Washington Wizards, considering Young emerged as a Knicks villain five years ago by dominating in Atlanta’s first-round series victory over the Knicks.

McCollum has been Atlanta’s best player in this series, leading them in scoring both games. He finished with 32 points on Monday after scoring 26 points in Game 1.

But McCollum hasn’t been the only Hawks player to mix things up in a series that’s gotten progressively more intense.

Toward the end of the first quarter, Mitchell Robinson was called for an offensive foul after he knocked Hawks defensive stopper Dyson Daniels to the floor as he set a screen for Brunson.

Robinson then stepped over Daniels, prompting the Hawks forward to get up with fighting words for the 7-footer. Robinson shoved Daniels backward, and Hawks center Tony Bradley intervened before the dispute could escalate further.

That altercation occurred in between a pair of fouls by Daniels that were both reviewed as potentially flagrant – first when he elbowed Brunson in the face, and then when his shoulder caught Josh Hart in the face, both times as he came off of a screen.

Neither was elevated beyond a common foul, but the Garden faithful let Daniels hear it both times, showering him with the same chant that they later used for McCollum.