New York Knicks punish fan after spitting on Atlanta Hawks star Trae Young

NEW YORK CITY — The New York Knicks beat the Atlanta Hawks 101-92 Wednesday night in front of a full house of screaming Knicks fans at Madison Square Garden.

The game was an intense, first round playoff game that evened the best of seven series, 1-1.

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One of the main storylines in the series has been the Knicks fans naming Hawks point guard Trae Young as their “public enemy ″No. 1″ after Young nailed a game-winning shot in Game 1 and visibly shushed the usually raucous Garden crowd.

After Wednesday night’s game, video surfaced on Twitter showing what appears to be a Knicks fan spitting on or at Young during an out-of-bounds play in the fourth quarter of the game.

Young did not initially know what may have happened during the game but was made aware of the alleged incident early Thursday morning and responded on his Twitter account.

The Knicks did investigate the incident, finding the fan, who they say was not a season ticket holder, did actually spit on Young in a Thursday afternoon statement.

The Knicks have banned the fan indefinitely from attending an event at Madison Square Garden.

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Just a short time earlier during the Philadelphia 76ers game with the Washington Wizards, a Sixers fan appears to dump a bucket of popcorn on Wizards star Russell Westbrook as he made his way to the locker room after being hurt.

Westbrook had to be restrained by multiple people and the fan was ejected from the game. After the game, Westbrook said the latest fan interaction is getting out of hand.

“I wouldn’t come up to me on the street and throw popcorn on my head, because you know what happens. ...In these arenas, you gotta start protecting the players. We’ll see what the NBA does,” he said.

The Hawks and Knicks square off again in Game 3 Friday night in Atlanta at 7 p.m.. The Hawks are expecting at or near a full house at State Farm Arena.

Ahead of the game, the NBA sent out a reminder about their fan “code of conduct”.

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