Melo: Sefolosha 'did his European and flopped' on punch to face

Carmelo Anthony ducked reporters following his ejection on Wednesday only to come back with a bang the night after.

Anthony didn't agree with the officials' decision to toss him after replays showed he swung his fist in the direction of Atlanta Hawks small forward Thabo Sefolosha's head. Anthony was slapped with an automatic ejection while Sefolosha earned a technical.

"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 told reporters, according to ESPN.

"He did his European and flopped a little bit ... It was more of getting him off of me. It was more getting him off of me than swinging at him."

Baseless stereotypes aside, the Swiss national saw the play very differently as he said Anthony threw, "a fist right in my face."

New York Knicks head coach Jeff Hornacek backed up his star player by saying Sefolosha started the entire fracas.

"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. 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," Hornacek said.