Melo delivers Denver fans early present, scores NBA career high 50 points and carries Nuggets to a thrilling 128-125 win over Knicks
By John Livingston | November 28, 2009
Carmelo Anthony gave the Denver fans an early present on Black Friday by dropping 50 points for the first time in his career to lead the Nuggets to a thrilling 128-125 victory over the ever struggling New York Knicks. Melo had some help from his team mates, including a stellar night from Chauncey Billups, but his individual performance was one that Nuggets fans as well as the entire NBA will remember for awhile.
The Knicks played at a high pace and pushed the Nuggets to score all night to keep up with their incredible three point shooting. Al Harrington came off the bench for the Knicks and scored 41 points and hit his first three three-pointers to push the Knicks to an early lead. The Knicks held a 30-26 lead at the end of the 1st quarter but the Nuggets and their two leaders made sure the Nuggets did not falter.
On a timeout, Billups rallied the team together to encourage them to drive to the basket for easy points rather than settling for jump shots. He began to lead by example by driving to the rim gathering lay-ups and foul calls to fight the Nuggets back on top of the game. Billups would finish with 32 points and 8 assists, including big three pointers late in the game to help push the team to the win. Earl “J.R.” Smith III also hit key three pointers down the stretch on his way to 17 points and the Nuggets have to be very pleased with his continually solid play and the energy he provides the team to score at a high volume. Still the night of Anthony has to be what resonates across basketball.
After all, it was just three years ago this December that Anthony was suspended for 15 games for the fight with the very same Knicks team. At the time, despite Melo’s talent, he had an image of being a trouble maker and it seemed he may not live up to the high expectations that the NBA had for him and his fellow 2003 draft mates Lebron James and Dwyane Wade. Still even a year ago Melo was not selected to start in the All-Star game despite having one of the better years of his career after helping lead the USA Basketball team to an Olympic gold. Melo still did not receive the “respect” from the referees that many other star NBA players get and he had to live with high levels of contact in the paint on almost every lay-up attempt that most of the time went ignored by the refs. However, this season after last years great Western Conference playoff run, Melo appears to have earned the respect from the league and the officials and is often getting to the free throw stripe to finish off three-point-plays. In years past it was a deal between Melo and Coach George Karl that it was okay for Melo to take ten jump shots as long as he got to the free throw line ten times. It seemed like it would should’ve been easy for Melo to get that done but due to the lack of calls it was difficult to achieve on a regular basis. Melo had 16 free throw attempts last night and he now regularly is attempting fifteen or more a game. This is the way to score easy points and it has to be considered a large contributer to him leading the league in scoring so far this season and gathering 50 last night. After all, the 49th and 50th points came from the stripe.
So it seems as though as Melo has almost come full circle in the matter of those 3 years from the suspension to 50 points against the Knicks. A few years ago, while many fans viewed Anthony as an MVP contender, did it really seem possible that the fans would be chanting “MVP” while Melo was shooting his free throws and having it be a real possibility? Melo most certainly has to be considered as the leagues MVP so far this season and he is on his way to a guaranteed All-Star birth, something that should become routine over the next decade for the young super-star. Karl and the rest of the Nuggets, including their fans, have to be proud of what Melo has done to change his image and attitude as well as everything he has done to improve his game itself.
The Denver faithful should be expecting many more 50 plus point games for Anthony throughout his career and this season and if he and the Nuggets are able to keep up their play they just might be able to get some hardware to go along with their new found respect.
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