Kevin Garnett called out Philadelphia fans after Monday’s game. (Getty Images)

Boston Celtics forward Kevin Garnett says there is no comparison between his team’s fans and those of the Philadelphia 76ers, according to Gary Dzen of Boston.com.

After Boston’s 101-85 victory over Philadelphia in Game 5 Monday, Garnett was asked to compare Boston’s crowd with the ones he had seen in Philadelphia in Games 3 and 4.

“Not even close,” Garnett told reporters. “You got fans and then you got fair-weather fans. Take that how you want.”

In March, former Red Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon, now with the Phillies, took a shot at the Boston faithful for not being as knowledgeable about the game.

“The Philly fans tend to know the game a little better, being in the National League, you know, the way the game is played,”Papelbon said.

The two towns will face off again Wednesday night, when Garnett and the Celtics travel to Philly for Game 6.

Atlanta Hawks co-owner Michael Gearon Jr. says that Boston Celtics big man Kevin Garnett is the league’s dirtiest player, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution. 

“ Last night, we are playing this old physical team,” Gearon said as a featured speaker at the Third Annual Art of It Luncheon, according to the paper. “They are old. I know what happens when you play basketball, old guys foul. [Kevin] Garnett is the dirtiest guy in the league. We are playing Boston last night and they had two fouls the whole first half. We had five times that and we’re athletic.”

The Celtics are currently facing the Hawks in the opening round of the NBA playoffs. Boston is leading the series 3-2 entering Game 6 tonight. The Celtics had won three games in a row against the Hawks leading into Tuesday’s one-point loss in Atlanta.

Garnett is averaging 16.8 points and 9.8 rebounds in the series.

The Atlanta Hawks enter this first-round playoff series with the Boston Celtics considered underdogs by many, but an 83-74 win in Sunday night’s Game 1 gave them a little confidence. So much, in fact, that Hawks rookie Ivan Johnson isn’t afraid to open his mouth and bash opposing big man Kevin Garnett, a future Hall of Famer.

“Garnett, he’s a dirty player,” Johnson told Dan Duggan of the Boston Herald. “He gives me a lot of elbows and I can handle that.”

Johnson has always had a flare for the controversial — after playing for four different college teams and going undrafted in 2007 out of Cal State San Bernardino, he bounced around between the D-League, South Korea, Puerto Rico and China before finally catching on with the Hawks. Johnson, who turned 28 earlier this month, is perhaps best known for being banned for life from the Korean Basketball League in 2010 — he made an obscene gesture at a referee.

“I was prepared for that,” Johnson said of Garnett’s alleged dirtiness. “I already knew how KG was going to come at me. They’re a whole bunch of mess-talkers.

“I know we’re not going to fight on the court,” he added. “I can handle it. I can take some hits. I try not to [give hits] because I’m usually the one that gets caught.”

The Hawks and Celtics reconvene for Game 2 in Atlanta tomorrow night.

The Boston Celtics are heading into a big playoff-preview game tonight, up against an Atlanta Hawks team they’ll likely face next week in the first round of the postseason. But apparently they’re not taking it seriously — coach Doc Rivers is resting his starters, according to Comcast SportsNet.

#CelticsTalk: #Celtics Rondo, Allen and Pietrus are not playing 2nite. Doc said he "probably" wasn't going to play KG and PP, either.

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A. Sherrod Blakely (@SherrodbCSN) April 20, 2012

Rajon Rondo (sore back), Ray Allen (sore ankle) and Mickael Pietrus (sore knee) are all injury scratches for the C’s tonight; Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce, however, are perfectly healthy but likely to sit anyway.

If they indeed sit all five veteran stars, the Celtics’ most likely starting five consists of guards Avery Bradley and Keyon Dooling, forwards Sasha Pavlovic and Brandon Bass, and center Greg Stiemsma.

The Celtics are currently 37-26, half a game behind the Hawks for fourth place in the Eastern Conference. A loss tonight likely means the C’s open the postseason on the road next weekend.

The NBA trade deadline came and went yesterday without Boston Celtics president Danny Ainge making a single move — which means at least for now, the C’s four-man nucleus of Rajon Rondo, Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen remains intact. But as Ainge revealed last night, not moving one of the Big Four wasn’t for lack of trying.

“If there were an opportunity to improve our future, fast-forward the rebuilding process that would otherwise take much longer, we would do it,” Ainge told Scott Souza of the MetroWest Daily News, presuambly referring to moving a veteran for younger pieces. “But nothing really excited us. There were deals we wanted to do and couldn’t find any takers, and deals other teams wanted us to do that we weren’t interested in.”

Pierce and Allen were both rumored as potential solutions to the L.A. Clippers’ opening at shooting guard, which was instead filled by Nick Young. Rondo was reportedly being shopped all season to a number of teams. In the end, the normally aggressive Ainge chose to do nothing. He’s now set to watch the contracts of Garnett and Allen expire this summer.

Ainge did say that he’s looking to add one more piece for the stretch run, which means he’ll be watching the buyout market closely over the next week.

“We do need to add a big man,” he said. “We’re going to try to wait and find the best big man available. We will be a little patient with that.”

Having tried and failed to get their hands on Dwight Howard at the trade deadline this year, the New Jersey Nets have already turned their attention to other big men who could potentially hit the market this summer. Chief among them, according to SI’s Zach Lowe, is the Boston Celtics’ Kevin Garnett.

Re: @ChrisMannixSI on NJ being interested in KG: Exec recently told me if KG is willing to come cheap, no FA will be more sought after.

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Zach Lowe (@ZachLowe_SI) March 16, 2012

Lowe followed up a report from SI’s Chris Mannix saying that Garnett and the Orlando Magic’s Ryan Anderson were atop the Nets’ wish list. Apparently the Nets’ main man is KG, who turns 36 this spring and has endured multiple knee surgeries in recent years.

Garnett has an expiring contract this spring — he’s currently playing out the final season of the three-year extension he signed upon his trade to Boston in 2007, making $21.2 million. It’s unknown whether he wants to play anywhere at all once he finishes this deal, much less with the struggling Nets.

Garnett is averaging 15.1 points and 8.2 rebounds per game for the Celtics this season, and encouragingly, he’s been on the floor for 39 of the C’s 42 games.

Former New York Knick forward Charles Oakley went on the radio Wednesday and shot back at Charles Barkley, who has been critical of Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni.

Oakley was on the Jim Rome Show, a syndicated radio program, and took on Barkley, Boston Celtics forward Kevin Garnett, and Oklahoma City Thunder forward Kendrick Perkins.

Here are his thoughts on Barkley, according to ESPN.com: ”Barkley for his size was a good player but he’s a coward though … he wasn’t a leader and wasn’t a role model. Now he talks so bad about younger guys, I don’t respect that from him. … He’s wants to be funny, that whole TNT thing and all that, they’re like some clowns on that show.”

He went on to call Kevin Garnett “one of the weakest guys to ever play the game,” and, of Perkins, “[i]f Kendrick Perkins would play basketball, Oklahoma City would win a championship the next three or four years.”

Kevin Garnett had his best game of the season this afternoon for the Boston Celtics, helping them to a 98-80 romp at home over the Memphis Grizzlies. The Big Ticket dropped 24 points and nine rebounds, helping the C’s improve to 8-1 in their last nine games.

But more notably, he made his third 3-pointer of the season, making him 3-for-3 — and his postgame rant to the Boston media was enough to raise a few eyebrows.

“Y’all stop acting like y’all shocked that I can shoot 3’s,” Garnett said. “Everybody in Boston, everybody in the world, everybody in Minnesota, everybody wherever I’m at — Concord, Lexington, Burlington — I can shoot 3’s, OK? Let that go. I can shoot 3’s. Y’all are acting all shocked like you ain’t seen a black guy hit a 3. The hell’s going on with y’all? I can shoot 3’s, alright?”

Garnett is perfect this season but only 171-of-599 for his career, or 28.5 percent. Even in his MVP season of 2003-04 he was miserable from 3-point range, shooting 25.6 percent.

But KG couldn’t care less about the numbers — he knows the real truth. Click here for the full six-paragraph transcript of his epic rant, as told by ESPN Boston’s Chris Forsberg.