In the Knicks loss to the Celtics Carmelo Anthony was coming off of an impressive week, averaging over 36 ppg and having a season average of 29.3ppg, making him the second leading scorer in the league.
With Melo getting in to early foul trouble (receiving his second at the seven minute mark of the first quarter) it was obvious that it was going to be a rough night. But it was how he handled this that was most disappointing.
Carmelo was going at it with known trash talking legend Kevin Garnett throughout the entire second half, and both of them received a technical foul for their constant badgering back and forth. As well as this Carmelo picked up both his fourth and fifth foul by playing overly aggressive defense down low on Pierce and KG, in fact it was as though he went looking for the foul! Which is not what you want from your leading scorer.
As the Knicks were down in the fourth, Carmelo continued to battle with KG as well as repeatedly handling the ball down the court and ‘jacking’ up contested threes.
Carmelo finished with 20 points on 6 of 26 shooting from the field and 4 of 12 from the three point line.
It has also been recently reported from various sources that Carmelo got in to some type of altercation outside of the Celtics locker rooms, but the specifics are yet to be announced. Sources are saying that Carmelo was waiting outside the Celtics locker room and got in to a verbal altercation.
For Knicks fans, the ‘Melo of old’ is something they never want to see again.
On a positive note JR Smith was again reliable leading the Knicks in scoring with 24 points, 3 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 steels.
Brent Kitchin
Breaking the Backboards 