Tempers flared between Josh Hart, Jaylen Brown after Knicks spark plugs bloody start

BOSTON — It looked like Josh Hart was wearing a red mask.But in reality, it was all blood.While going up for a layup with 3:30 left in the first quarter, Hart took an elbow to the face, right above his left eye, from Luke Kornet and immediately started gushing blood.

After a review for a flagrant, it was deemed a common foul.Hart stayed in to take his two free throws — making both — before going to the locker room.

He got stitches to close the wound.“Eye’s peachy,” Hart joked after the 127-102 Game 5 loss, cutting the Knicks’ series lead to 3-2 heading into Friday’s Game 6 at the Garden.He returned in the second quarter and continued to get roughed up throughout the game, constantly hitting the floor on drives to the basket.“I think that you saw, Josh’s layup — we knew it was going to be that type of game,” coach Tom Thibodeau said.“I knew the type of aggression that would be involved in this game.”In the beginning of the third quarter, he and Jaylen Brown were both issued technical fouls after a shoving match required them to be separated.

Brown aggressively tried to fight through Hart’s screen, which prompted Hart to push him.Then Brown pushed Hart back, and Hart retaliated with another push before Kornet and officials got in between them.Sports+ subscribers: Sign up for Inside the Knicks to get daily newsletter coverage and join Expert Take for insider texts about the series.While Brown was fighting through the screen, he grabbed Hart’s crotch, though it appeared inadvertent.“It was just two guys that are extremely competitive,” Hart said of the confrontation with Brown.

“He’s a passionate, competitive player.We were tied at halftime, he’s trying to give their team a spark and momentum and the same thing with me.”Hart and Brown embraced later in the game to bury the hatchet.“I got nothing but respect for him,” Hart said.

“It’s just two competitive dudes going out there and competing at the highest level.So...