The NBA’s biggest villains have captured the spotlight in the postseason.
Draymond Green was suspended for Thursday night’s pivotal Game 3 against the Kings — after being ejected in Game 2 — for stomping a hole in Domantas Sabonis’ chest and egging on the Sacramento crowd like a professional wrestler.
Russell Westbrook cursed out another opposing fan, reportedly over the ghastly offense of calling him “Westbrick.”
And Memphis’ Dillon Brooks is pretending to be a worthy adversary of LeBron James, capping his mediocre Game 2 performance and on-court trash talk with an absurd string of post-game insults directed at the NBA’s all-time leading scorer.
“I don’t care, he’s old,” Brook said, when asked about instigating James. “He’s not at the same level that he was when he was on Cleveland winning championships, Miami. I wish I got to see that. It would have been a harder task, but I’m playing with what I’ve got … I just let him know that, ‘You can’t take me one-on-one.’
“I poke bears. I don’t respect no one until they come and give me 40.”
In the Knicks-Cavs series, a villain could be born as soon as Friday night at Madison Square Garden during Game 3 of the tied first-round series.
It would be a historical anomaly if the Knicks finish the postseason without making a new enemy.
Two years ago, Trae Young became the most hated player in New York, leading the Hawks to a first-round series win while jawing with the crowd and bowing at center court. Michael Jordan and Reggie Miller top the list of all-time Knicks villains, and Larry Bird, Alonzo Mourning, John Havlicek, Baltimore’s Earl Monroe and others also once earned the level of wrath that is only unwrapped in playoff battles.
The Cavaliers have no shortage of candidates who could join the list.
Donovan Mitchell is the most obvious — and undeserving — target.
The star guard, who turned Cleveland into a contender in his first season with the team, probably would trade jerseys before Game 3, if he could. The Westchester native — and diehard Mets fan — wanted to come home and play for the Knicks, who deemed the price to trade for him to be too high this past offseason. No player on either side has as much motivation to put on a show under the bright lights. No player on either side has had as many standout postseason moments as Mitchell, who scored 38 points in Game 1 and has four career playoff games with at least 44 points.
Jarrett Allen will only feel venom from the city where he began his career with the Nets, following his flagrant foul on Julius Randle in the final minutes of the Knicks’ lopsided Game 2 loss.
Randle, who violently fell to the ground on the dunk attempt, believes the foul “was a little unnecessary.”
“Typically when you make those type of plays you go across their body, not through them,” Randle said. “But it’s fine. It’s irrelevant. We’ll go back to the Garden, and see him there.”
Knicks fans also will see Darius Garland, the overshadowed All-Star who put up 32 points in Game 2 and could become the next incarnation of Tim Hardaway playing for the Heat.
The Garden will also get to see Isaac Okoro for the first time since he complained about Jalen Brunson’s “antics” drawing fouls. It doesn’t quite rise to the level of Cedric Maxwell calling Bernard King a “b-tch” during the 1984 playoffs, but the series is still young. And it won’t take much for a new villain to emerge.
Today’s back page
Read more:
🏒 BROOKS: Rangers seize series control after physically dominating Devils
⚾ Mets blast three homers to top Giants despite another shaky Kodai Senga start
🏈 COSTELLO: This is what’s holding up the Jets-Packers Aaron Rodgers trade
⚾ Yankees take another series with rubber-game win over Angels
🏈 Joe Schoen can’t say if Saquon Barkley will be on Giants in 2023: ‘Ask him’
Read Related Also: Megan Fox Was Still A Teenager When She Met Brian Austin Green
Rangers riding high
The Garden will be just as loud Saturday night.
The Rangers will return home this weekend for Game 3 of their first round series with a 2-0 lead, following last night’s 5-1 win over the Devils. Chris Kreider scored a pair of power-play goals and Patrick Kane added a goal and two assists.
New Jersey entered the second period up 1-0, but its lead was a distant memory by the third period, as “Let’s go Rangers” chants filled the Prudential Center. After Vladimir Tarasenko tied the game early in the second, Kreider scored back-to-back goals, giving the veteran four goals through the series’ first two games. Kane, the former Conn Smythe winner, then sealed the win with a breakaway goal in the third period for his first postseason goal with the Rangers.
Igor Shesterkin allowed just one goal for the second straight start and has stopped 49 of 51 shots in the series. Adam Fox has six assists.
Before the Devils attempt to avoid falling into a 3-0 hole, the Islanders will try to do the same tonight, hosting the Hurricanes in the first-ever playoff game at UBS Arena.
Net loss
James Harden was ejected. Joel Embiid was held to his second-lowest scoring effort of the season. And the Nets still couldn’t make it a series.
Brooklyn’s erratic season is now one loss from ending, following last night’s 102-97 loss to the 76ers in Game 3 of their first-round series at Barclays Center.
The Nets’ ninth straight playoff defeat makes them 0-7 against Philadelphia this season, heading into Game 4 Saturday afternoon.
The night could’ve been much different, if Embiid had been tossed in the first quarter for attempting to kick Nic Claxton below the belt.
As it turned out, the ejections came later.
Harden was kicked out after hitting Royce O’Neale with a low blow in the final seconds of the third quarter. Then, Claxton was thrown out after receiving his second technical foul for taunting Embiid after a dunk — Claxton picked up his first technical while stepping over Embiid, prompting the kick — which put the Nets up 87-81 with 8:48 left in the fourth quarter.
The Nets defended Embiid (14 points) masterfully, but couldn’t stop Tyrese Maxey, who scored eight straight points to give Philly the lead with 45 seconds remaining.
Embiid then blocked Spencer Dinwiddie’s game-tying attempt in the final seconds, putting Brooklyn in a seemingly insurmountable hole.
Oakland gets taken to the cleaners again
Oakland’s tenure as a pro sports town is coming to an end.
The A’s have signed a binding agreement to purchase 49 acres of land near the Las Vegas Strip, where the soon-to-be relocated franchise plans to build a $1.5 billion, 35,000-seat stadium that could break ground next year and open by 2027.
The team’s lease at the aging Oakland Coliseum expires in 2024, and team president Dave Kaval told The New York Times the A’s could temporarily move to Las Vegas’ Triple-A park until the new stadium is completed.
The A’s — who were founded in Philadelphia, and moved to Kansas City before settling in Oakland in 1968 — will become the first MLB team to relocate since the Montreal Expos became the Washington Nationals (2004-05).
Following years of fruitless discussions to build a new ballpark for the A’s in the Bay Area, Oakland now turns its ire to the third professional team to abandon the city in recent years.
In 2020, the Raiders left Oakland for the second time, moving to Las Vegas’ brand new Allegiant Stadium, which is located roughly one mile from the proposed site of the future A’s ballpark.
In 2019, the Golden State Warriors ended nearly five decades in Oakland with the insult of traveling across the Bay Bridge to play in San Francisco’s new Chase Center.
Now another historic franchise — which won four World Series titles in Oakland, which featured Reggie and Vida, Catfish and Eck, Rickey and the Bash Brothers — has turned its back on its longtime home.
“I am deeply disappointed that the A’s have chosen not to negotiate with the City of Oakland as a true partner, in a way that respects the ong relationship between the fans, the City and the team,” Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao said. “Yet, it is clear to me that the A’s have no intention of staying in Oakland and have simply been using this process to try to extract a better deal out of Las Vegas. I am not interested in continuing to play the game — the fans and our residents deserve better.”
The A’s currently have the worst record in baseball (3-16) and a league-low $60 million payroll — roughly $26 million less than the Mets pay their top two pitchers. Last season, the A’s were the only MLB team to average fewer than 10,000 fans per home game.
