Jeff: Melo’s fist to Hawk’s face was justified

NEW ORLEANS — After reviewing the film of Carmelo Anthony connecting his fist with Thabo Sefolosha’s face, Jeff Hornacek was adamant Thursday that his star didn’t deserve the ejection and was merely reacting to the mugging from his opponent.

To underscore the coach’s point and further back Anthony, Hornacek offered up a scenario where he’d double-hook an official to see his reaction.

“I don’t blame (Anthony) for what happened, honestly. If you watch the replay, you watch the action, the guy had his arms wrapped around his neck,” the coach said. “You know it’s like I want to sometimes go to the referee and wrap my arms around their neck and say, “What are you going to do? You just going to stand there? You’re going to get the guy off you. It’s a natural reaction. You’re not going to let a guy grab you around the neck. To me, that’s more inadvertent. It’s a reaction. If someone grabs you up there, you throw your hands up.”

Replays of the incident from Wednesday’s loss show Anthony and Sefolosha getting tangled up while fighting for a rebound, but it’s unclear if — or when — Sefolosha wrapped his arms around Anthony’s neck. Either way, Anthony was ejected from the game in the second quarter because he swung his arm backwards and hit Sefolosha in the face with a closed fist.

Following the game, the Hawks forward said, “He punched me. That was a fist right in my face.” Anthony’s version Thursday was a little softer.

“It was more of getting him off of me,” said Anthony, whose two ejections this season ties him for the league lead with John Wall. “It was more getting him off of me than swinging at him.”

While acknowledging the ejection was warranted based on league rules, he offered two other explanations — that the crowd was influential and riled up by the looping replay of the incident on Atlanta’s Jumbotron; and also that Sefolosha, who is from Switzerland, sold the contact as

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European players tend to do.

“I don’t think it was anything Sefolosha was doing as far as being overly physical or anything like that. It was just a battle, we were both trying to go for it. Got tangled up,” Anthony said. “He did his European and flopped a little bit.”

As standard in the aftermath of these types of scuffles, Anthony spoke with the league Thursday to discuss whether he and Sefolosha have a beef or a grudge — “I don’t have no problem with him.” Anthony said that the possibility of rescinding the Flagrant 2 was not discussed with the league, and neither was the chance that he could be suspended for Friday’s game against the Pelicans.

Anthony doesn’t seem too concerned either way. The Knicks (16-15) have a big game Friday in New Orleans and are